Shadows Of New York
by Cypher-SB
Summary: The continuing adventures of Cypher and Firefly, almost seven months after the events that happened in Denver. What starts as a simple run to the Rotten Apple turns into a much longer stay. Based on the Catalyst Game Labs mission modules. Results are in no way guaranteed to match cannon material, and the shadowrunners are characters of my own creation.
1. Run 00 : Everyone's Your Friend

Run 00 : Everyone's Your Friend (based on the mission written by Stephen McQuillan; posted 2014/04/28)

It was late on the last Sunday in March when Skyler got a call from someone neither he nor Mina had spoken to since the summer before. It was also hard to forget the bald head and gold tusk of Miguel Sanchez when it popped up on his commlink's tiny screen.

"Who's calling?" Mina asked.

"Miguel." Skyler told her. With a thought he answered the call, using his personal winged sword icon to represent himself on the call rather than use his commlink's built-in camera to show themselves.

"Aight, so's I gots a job for tha two of ya. All travel paid, to pick up a lost package in the Rotten Apple." Miguel said, not even waiting for a greeting.

"And why're you callin' us?" Skyler asked, "We haven't even been home two days from flying all 'round the planet already."

Around the planet was almost true. Having gotten caught up with a smuggler to help a thief by the name of Sonora had actually landed them on a whirlwind trip across the Pueblo Corporate Council to Los Angeles. After getting word that it might be best to stay out of Denver for a while they had stuck on with the other shadowrunners and went with them to Seattle instead of returning home. Within a two weeks they had gotten another job that took them across Europe. It was only last Friday night that the two had finally gotten home from another job that took them to Southern Asia, where Skyler was momentarily engaged to someone other than Mina, and ended with a boat trip across the Pacific that involved a fight with more than one pirate group at a time.

"'Cause youz two know what's lost." Miguel answered. "Stop by da Imports and bring what ya need for da trip. Dis one could take a while."

_We know what's lost?_ Skyler thought to himself.

"Should we hear him out?" Skyler asked.

Mina groaned.

"We'll at least be there to talk." Skyler told the gold tusked ork, ending the call. He ran a hand over his head, still not used to the stubble of having had his head shaved only days ago.

"Do we really have much to bring?" Mina asked, "I mean, we never really packed a lot those last two times."

"Yeah, true." Skyler said.

Skyler really was the one with the most to carry, which was his stylized monofilament sword and half a dozen various pistols. Mina, on the other hand, had her magic, two handguns, and a shorter blade for backup.

"So where are you two off to?" Sarah asked, catching them as they were raiding the refrigerator for some energy drinks before leaving.

"Got a call from Miguel." Skyler said, closing the refrigerator door. "Job about finding something."

"He said we knew what was lost." Mina added, "Hell if I know what he's talking about."

"So you're not planning on taking the job?" Sarah asked.

"Not really." Skyler answered.

"Not like we need the money anyway." Mina added.

"Well, technically you're both adults." Sarah said. "Fine. We'll tell everyone you two are still away."

Living several months straight and not being able to leave Rei's home would have been impossible. Together they had come up with a child protection kind of story, with Sarah being the guardian of Skyler and Mina, along with new fake identities for the both of them. Posing as brother and sister the two had managed to play their roles to the hilt, including a grounding after getting in trouble with a couple of the other neighborhood kids.

When it came to their trip across the PCC after Sonora, Sarah had told them she had told the other parents in the neighborhood that they had to go back home. So far nobody in the neighborhood even knew that they were back.

It was when Skyler noticed his younger sister grinning when he said, "It's still not funny."

"I know, but I still can't help it." Sarah said, "You both look so different without hair."

"Let's just go!" Mina said loudly, storming out of the kitchen.

Scowling, Skyler followed her.

Their shaved heads came from their last job, and it was not exactly a choice or fashion statement either of them chose. Their team was captured and then plugged into an ultra hot UV node as a form of interrogation, a virtual reality environment so high tech it was impossible to discern from the real world. To allow the trodes the best possible connection, their captor had everyone's head shaved.

Things had not quite gone so smoothly. Skyler had actually felt weak and disconnected while in the node with the others. He was next to useless in the virtual world. Even after finding out what had really happened, he still had no idea why that particular node had been the way it was towards him.

After their escape from the UV node, Mina had become despondent. Even though her hair was not exactly that long she had taken the loss of her hair pretty hard. It seemed Skyler had been the only one to be able to help her when she became angry.

Rei's home was in the UCAS sector, so there were no borders to cross to reach Casquillo Imports. Skyler hacked a GridCab to give them a ride there. Sure, they could have had Sarah give them a ride, but that meant more time with her when they both did not want to be close to her, and other embarrassing feelings at 'having to get a ride from mommy.'

Miguel was already waiting for them, dressed in jeans and a long jacket.

With Miguel was another ork that Skyler thought he had seen once or twice before. He was shorter than Miguel, and rather slim for an ork. He had nearly black skin and black curly hair. He also wore simple jeans, shirt, and a coat that was not zipped up. At least his hands were cybernetic.

"Oi, youz two looks like youz walked outa a game." Miguel told them.

It was sort of true. Both Skyler and Mina wore clothes from dressCODE's CYBERPIRATE line, which boasted a similar look from all of the Tron movies that had been made over the last century.

Skyler and Mina both had gotten a full ensemble that was reminiscent to the old movie Tron Legacy, with the gloss black and wide fiber optic lines that lit up and changed colors on command. They had also gotten matching goggles, headphones, and boots, though they did a lot more than just look the part.

Several months ago, even before their unplanned trip to Los Angeles, both Skyler and Mina had gotten new gear and tricks along with their new clothes. Concealed in their goggles was a small sensor package containing a tricked out trideo camera and microphone, and software to give them an extra edge when dealing with others.

Among that software was a facial recognition program. Thinking that the other ork looked familiar Skyler ran that program against the data stored in a high end commlink that was part of his fake cybernetic left arm. What Skyler knew about a runner with the street name 'Stomper' came to view almost right away.

"Wait, you're telling me I'm going to be working with these two?" Stomper asked. "Thought this was a professional job. And they stand out way too much."

"_We worked with this guy before?_" Mina silently asked.

"Yup, daz right. Youz workin' wit 'em." Miguel said.

Skyler checked the date on Stomper's data file. "_We've met him February, before we went to L.A._" Skyler told Mina.

Aloud, Skyler said, "Hey, the clothes are so overt they're covert. Besides, the style's all the rage since Astrologic went supernova. What's that old saying, if you want to hide a leaf do it in a forest?"

Astrologic was a trio of musicians that blended technosynth with some steelmill industrial for their style of music. On the stage and in the public the three wore custom made ensembles from the dressCODE line. The company's sales had hit a new high when the fans could buy similar designs.

"I won't work with children." Stomper added.

"Fuck you, Stomper, we are professionals." Mina said.

"Fine. Doesn't mean shit if we take the job or not." Skyler added.

"We met before?" Stomper asked.

"Last February." Skyler said. "We crossed paths hunting some Azzies that tried sneaking in for the Olympics."

"I still say it was luck." Mina added.

"Oh shit, you two?" Stomper asked.

"Yes, us two." Skyler spitefully said.

"Where's your keeper?" Stomper asked. "And I thought you had hair."

"You need your momma to come wipe your nose?" Skyler retorted. "Just shut the fuck up."

"Maybe I should burn him anyway." Mina added menacingly.

"New York's no place for children." Stomper said.

"Got a news flash for ya, but Denver ain't all that safe sometimes too." Mina replied.

"As if New York doesn't have kids there, either." Skyler added. "Or Seattle, Hong Kong, Sarajevo…"

"So, you said we knew what's lost. So what is it?" asked Mina.

"Youz okay with da trip?" Miguel asked. "Doesn't look like you've packed much."

"So we travel light. The rest we can buy there." Skyler said.

Miguel grinned.

"Alright, fine." Stomper relented. "If at least to try and keep you kids out of trouble."

"_Keep _us_ out of trouble?_" Mina silently asked.

"Oi, these two'z ain't newbs." Miguel said.

"Maybe I oughta burn him." Mina suggested.

"I don't think you could do it." Stomper said.

"They call me Firefly 'cause I melted down a steel door with magic my first job." Mina told him.

Skyler remembered that moment a little differently, but certainly was not going to bring it up now.

"They're serious?" Stomper asked Miguel.

"They'z done lots o' work for me already. They'z good." the ork replied. "So, youz gonna be goin' afta Lin Yao. She's skipped town."

"Uh, yeah. She's dead." Skyler said.

"Den she's back from da dead. We'z got proof she's in Manhattan." Miguel told them.

Skyler and Mina both groaned. Skyler knew it would be trouble since the Triad had paid their team a good sum of money to kill her. Mina never did like the idea, and Skyler still remembered the promise that they turn down all wetwork in the future. She did not like it, but she had accepted the money just for keeping quiet about it all.

"Please don't tell me you're wanting us to do it right the second time." Mina groaned. "'Cause if you are then you can just fuck off right now."

It was ruder than Skyler would have put it, but deep down he felt the same way.

"Well, if ya gotta." Miguel said like Mina's comment was completely professional, "But really da jobz to get her back ta Denver alive. Youz gets a finder's fee of seventy-five hundred if ya can do it."

"_I think we need to do this one._" Skyler silently told Mina.

"_Because of our rep, right?_" Mina asked.

Skyler nodded.

"Okay, we're in but not for the money." Skyler said.

"Not the money?" Stomper asked.

"Yeah, not the money. It's for our reputation that we're doin' it." Skyler answered.

"But like hell we're gonna do it for free." Mina added. "Shit, finder's fee of seventy-five hundred? Why'd we come back again?"

"To try to take a break from artifact hunting." Skyler answered. "But why us?" he asked Miguel, "We can't be the only ones you could call."

"Yeah, you'z were. Da ot'ers ain't in da area." Miguel told them.

When it looked like Mina was not going to say anything, scowling as she looked away from him, Skyler grumbled, "Fine."

"Good, cuz youz gonna need this." Miguel said.

Skyler's commlink beeped with an incoming file request. "What's this?" he asked.

"A patch for you'z ID." Miguel said. "Youz gonna need it ta get in."

"If this fucks us over, you know what I'll do." Skyler threatened as he accepted the ID patch.

Miguel laughed, but it sounded like he was not completely oblivious to the threat.

"I don't get it." Stomper said.

Skyler looked over the code of the patch as he asked, "Heard about what happened to Masatoshi Morikawa last Halloween?"

"Yeah, some hackers ripped his network a new ass." Stomper said, "Knight Errant got a shit load of evidence the guy was behind at least a dozen technomancer kidnappings. Word is a bunch of hackers lead by a wiz cutter named 'Cypher' did it."

"Shit." Skyler groaned, "Now they're saying I was a leader?"

Miguel laughed. Skyler couldn't blame the ork for this one.

"Knight Errant's official report…" Stomper started to say.

"Is shit." butted in Skyler. "I tore through half a dozen firewalls, and I ain't talkin' 'bout the shit the megas sell the public. Those were military grade barriers and coding I ripped apart like a grizzly bear opens canned meat. And I did it alone."

"Kid, better hope no real hackers find out…" Stomper said. Looking to Miguel he suddenly stopped.

"Dis kid'z Cypher." the gold tusked ork said.

"Seriously?" Stomper asked, apparently still not believing it.

Miguel laughed hard.

"Shit, I hate this." muttered Mina, turning and taking a few steps away from them.

"Now you know how I feel." Skyler added.

Stomper just looked at the two of them.

"So, time ta go." Miguel said. "We gots dis truck ta haul you and yer stuff ta Stapleton. Da guyz'll tell ya da rest on da way."

Arrangements had already been made for their trip. Miguel even had three large crates, each one 1m × 1m × 3m in size. Skyler and Mina had opted to share a crate, mostly because neither needed a whole crate to themselves.

It was late before their flight departed from Stapleton, and it was one step above air freight. While their cargo box was in the cargo hold itself, the three of them got a not so comfortable seat in a small passenger cabin close to the cockpit. At least it was not like the T-bird they rode in last month, a flight so noisy and full of short hops that it had been nearly impossible to even get a nap.

Somewhere along the flight Skyler caught Stomper looking at him and Mina. It was one of those 'I know' looks, like Stomper actually believed he was who he said he was. Considering the unencrypted and uncoded calls Skyler had overheard Stomper making, he hoped the black skinned ork believed it.

It was early in the morning when their flight arrived at Kennedy International. Once they were past airport security they collected their things and were off to the island of Manhattan.

Originally one of the boroughs of New York City, the entire island of Manhattan was now extraterritoriality. It started after the Quake in 2005 when the United States government failed to step up with disaster relief for the stricken city. Enter the Manhattan Development Consortium, or Manhattan Inc., or just MDC for short. Over the course of forty years the corporation bought up every square kilometer of Manhattan and annexed it off from the rest of the city and nation. During that time the NYSE (later renamed the East Coast Stock Exchange) moved from Manhattan to Boston then right back again where it originally had been, some of the buildings that had actually survived the Quake were lifted an average of five meters _back_ to their original elevation, and the city grew by roughly sixteen square kilometers in area. People left and were enticed back, and the island became once again a bustling city of business. Never mind the fact that it was legally and technically a country all to itself now.

As Manhattan was suffering and being rebuilt, security was tightened at all of the bridges and subway stations for getting onto Manhattan, the New York Police Department became Incorporated as the law enforcement arm for the MDC. It made for an interesting balance of power, with the Corporate Court having their ground based headquarters in Manhattan, but their own security did not hold much authority beyond their own building.

It also meant that, as one of the enforced security measures, everyone was required to publicly broadcast their identity on their commlinks. Skyler and Mina were not too keen on this, having been more accustomed to keeping their commlinks in passive or hidden mode. Public meant that anyone with a commlink could read anyone else's identity. A century ago that would have been similar to having your ID or drivers license card worn as a name tag for all to see, and walking around with a powerful strobe light on your head.

It was evident what the extra security meant when they took the metro from JFK International Airport to Manhattan.

For both Skyler and Mina this was their first trip by rail. Sure, once they had gone by train to a ski resort and back, but speeding aboveground was a wholly different experience. It was also nice to be able to sit down for a while again.

At least their choice of clothes was not outlandish compared to some of the others they saw. There were several others who had the same style with various bright colors. Even with Skyler sporting light blue and Mina hot pink, they did not exactly stand out.

Curious as to why it was not a subway, Skyler created an ARO to do a little research. It was not difficult to find that the underground of Manhattan had largely been paved over instead of reclaimed. As a result an elevated railway system had been rebuilt above the streets, largely following the same layout as the now destroyed subway system. Only rarely did this metro system go underground.

They got off at the line's first stop within Manhattan's borders to change to a different line that would almost bring them to their destination, a business called The Apple Press.

The checkpoint to get to the other metro line felt almost as bad as the security checkpoints in Denver. The air was a flood of AROs floating near everyone's heads, most of them were red but there were some that were blue, blue and white mixed, and one or two that were white.

Then Skyler noticed a trio of dwarves just ahead of them, and their black passes. They were pulled from the line of people by security and it looked like they were going to get a more thorough examination before being allowed to pass. No one else in the line seemed to even notice.

"Don't get involved." Stomper said in a hushed tone to them.

"We're not as stupid as you." Skyler replied.

Mina looked like she had some concern, but this really was not new to her either. She and Skyler both had seen plenty of people pulled out of line in Denver when trying to cross the border. Even once there was someone handcuffed and sitting on the curb while a rather expensive looking sports car was being disassembled the easy way.

When it came to their turn to cross the security guards here were just as lackadaisical as the ones in Denver. After what looked like a simple check they were ushered on through. They did not even seem to question the fact that Skyler was openly wearing his Ruger Super Warhawk on his right hip or a sword at his back. Even Mina with her Cougar Fineblade was not given a second look. He made a note to thank Merlin for the quality of the fake IDs and licenses he and Mina had.

They were to meet a fixer called Peace Man at The Apple Press, and the metro station at Union Square and 14th Street put them only blocks away.

The Apple Press certainly did not look like what Skyler was expecting. Rather than a receptionist and office cubes the whole ground floor of the building was devoted to being a coffee and teahouse. And by the smell of the coffee in the air it was the real thing.

At just after nine in the morning the place was not too busy. There were a handful of people at individual tables, but one group was gathered at a corner booth.

"Looks like we're over there." Stomper said, pointing to the group at the corner booth.

Skyler was not so sure, but followed behind anyway.

Sitting at the table was the first minotaur Skyler had ever seen in person. He had short, curly black hair, swarthy skin, at least cybernetic hands, and a prominent pair of ivory horns growing from his temples. Even sitting down he looked huge. The ID icon next to him said his name was Joseph Golden.

Next to him was a very attractive elf. She was dressed a little more oddly in a full on steampunk fashion style, with large boots, trousers, and a vest with working clockworks within. She had very long red hair that was done up in a collection of thick braids. Her broadcast ID said her name was Carol Webb.

Opposite of the minotaur was a strange looking human. Skyler figured the solid black eyes were cybernetic replacements, which did go well with the nearly all black ensemble he wore. Aside from being Caucasian the only other color contrast was his snow white hair. According to his PAN his name was Mark Daniels.

Last at the table, though probably the first one there, was a scraggly looking ork that was probably no older than Mina's true age. He had skin almost as dark as Stomper's, and his black hair was let loose in dreadlocks. He wore black sunglasses and a multicolored tee that sported a very large marijuana leaf. The name Charles Stoddard seemed to sound too elegant for a pot smoking hippy.

Overall Skyler wondered how many IDs here were fake.

"Hey! Here's the outta town talent!" the ork cried.

"Peace Man?" Stomper asked.

"Peace, man." the ork said, holding up two fingers in the century old gesture of peace.

"Wait, these can't be it." Carol said, "A black, cybered, scrawny ork and two Anglo kids?"

"I'm sorry, but just because you've got some cyber doesn't mean you get to play street sam with the big boys." Mark said, barely looking at them.

"_The elf and ork are awakened, and the other guys are heavy on the cyber._" Mina silently told him.

"Yeah, you know, I don't give a shit what you think, spook." Skyler said, grabbing a chair from an empty table and swinging it around to theirs. "We're here to help track down someone and ship 'em back to Denver." he added as he sat down, the back of his chair towards the table, his legs at either side of the chair's slender back and his arms crossed as he leaned into the chair. Already he was filtering out all of the signal noise to isolate their commlinks.

"We're here to see Peace Man 'bout a job. Help some local crew catch a skipper." Stomper added, apparently choosing to stay standing.

With apparently enough space on the chair, Skyler felt Mina kneel on the chair right behind him. Soon her hands were resting on his shoulders.

"Peace!" Peace Man said, holding up the 'V' again. "And they're it. Was told there'd be kids, but I was told they're way wiz good."

"You gotta be shitting me." Carol exclaimed. "They can't be more than twelve or thirteen, tops!"

Skyler focused on her PAN, and the easy enough to identify Novatech Airware that was broadcasting her ID. When he scanned it for its specs, though, it came back with higher quality stats than he was expecting. Her network was also encrypted, but did not appear to be booby trapped.

"You can always leave if you don't wanna work with 'em." Peace Man said.

Calling up his crack sprite for support, Skyler extended his mind into the virtual world and went straight to burrowing a hole through the firewall of her network.

"And if either of them gets a little bit trigger happy they could end up shooting any of us instead." Mark added.

Skyler had bored through harder firewalls than this, and after decoding a pretty good encryption setup he was inside her network.

"I'm a better shot than that." Skyler said.

"Just cause you've add a Smartlink doesn't mean you're a better shot." the human retorted.

Carol's network was a bit more secured than Skyler expected, he found as he poked around. She had a running agent program constantly monitoring everything in her network. He threaded up his disarming form and had its analyzing software neutralized in short order.

"Yeah, it does." Skyler countered, "Means I can better place the slug where I want to."

"Roadblock, aren't you gonna say something?" Carol asked.

The minotaur shook his head.

"This was a bad idea." Mina said. Skyler could feel her hands tightening on his shoulders.

"Now you realize it?" Carol asked.

Skyler slipped himself into a drone that the elf woman was wearing. It was almost like a trode net had been given about two dozen tentacles disguised as hair. He completely took over the drone, locking out her command authority, and had one of the tentacles lightly slap her in the face.

"What the?" the elf exclaimed when her own hair hit her in the face.

"Yeah, I hate new meetings like this." Skyler said as he messed with the elf through her fake hair. "We always gotta prove ourselves. I hate it."

With another tentacle the drone slapped Carol.

Finally frustrated with her misbehaving drone, Carol yanked it off entirely. Skyler figured it was plugged in by a datajack when he suddenly lost his connection to the drone. It also suddenly stopped thrashing about like an octopus being hit with a cattle prod.

"Problems?" Skyler asked innocently.

"You did that?" Mark asked.

Skyler only grinned at him, logging off from Carol's personal network.

"And what's she good for?" Mark asked.

"Magician, supposedly." Stomper said.

Skyler sighed. If anyone was going to be the heel it was Stomper.

"She is awakened." Carol said as she now picked up the demonic looking pile of hair that was a drone, "Okay power, but that's about it."

Mina scowled. "Stronger than you."

"So, we settled or am I gonna have to hack more of your stuff while we talk?" Skyler asked.

"This ain't a job for kids." Carol muttered, looking away from everyone.

"That's what I told Miguel yesterday." Stomper added.

"Look, we're here 'cause the target's a Denver native." Skyler said, "We're here 'cause of our skills, and we know the person."

"You don't know who you're hunting?" Mark asked.

"Do you?" Skyler asked back.

Judging from Mark's expression, they did not.

"Hey man, we were just getting to that." Peace Man said. He waved his hand in the air and John got an invite request to join a private chat through the commlink he wore. He accepted it, and right away an ARO appeared in front of him.

The ARO was an image of Lin Yao alright. Probably taken somewhere in New York City itself, though Skyler could not even begin to guess where. The timestamp in the image file said it was taken a month ago.

"Lookin' good for a dead woman." Mina said. She sounded relieved.

"Known alias 'Mikano Li?' Would've thought she'd have a new this time." Skyler said.

"What're you talkin' about?" Carol asked.

"We," Skyler indicated to himself and Mina, "were on the team that was paid to kill her." Right as he said this he remembered that Mina would hate him for saying it. He felt her tighten her fingers around his shoulders again.

"And when we did a job for her last June she was using that same name. Then it also said she was some S-K junior exec, too." Skyler added.

Stomper looked like he was about to be sick. Skyler wondered how the bounty hunter would react if he knew that he and Mina were not quite the children they looked like, either.

"There's ways to make sure she was dead." Mark said softly. "Could have shot her in the head, too."

"Uh, yeah, 'bout that. We didn't have time to check." Skyler said.

"Yeah, running for your life tends to do that." Mina added. "Besides, someone else gunned her down. When her bodyguards started shooting back it was run or die."

"Anyway," interrupted Peace Man, "if you wanna track her down you ought to try the local Triad hangouts."

"And just how're we supposed to find those?" Stomper asked.

"That's what the yokels are for." Skyler answered, rolling his eyes behind his goggles. When he noticed both Carol and Mark glaring at him he added, "Hey, we tag 'er 'n you bag 'er. If it was some New Yorker in Denver we'd be the yokels leading you to all the hangouts."

Neither seemed too pleased with the added explanation.

"Hey, me 'n Firefly can always head back to Seattle. Sure we can get another job to fly us off to Europe." Skyler said.

Maybe it was how Skyler said it that seemed to change how the other four looked at him and Mina.

"Obvious place to start would be in Chinatown." Carol reluctantly said as she fixed the strange drone back into place about her hair. "I know a place we can ask around in."

"Right, let's get this over with." Mark said, pushing his chair back as he stood.

Skyler returned his chair to the table he took it from as he and Mina followed the others out.

"So how are we going to get there? Walk?" Stomper asked as they walked.

"We take the train." Mark said.

It was a good walk back down to 14th street and the Union Square metro station.

Their stop was a station near the Brooklyn Bridge, an area where the buildings were perpetually in the shadow of The Towers just to the northwest.

The Towers were three onyx black skyscrapers that reached two hundred and fifty stories up, and were the terrestrial home to the Corporate Court. The trio of towers also shadowed southern Manhattan in more ways than one.

"Don't fall behind." Mark called out to them as they walked down to street level.

Chinatown was a relatively small section of Manhattan, smaller than the portion of Denver that was called Chinatown. Even with the metro station being right at one corner it was not much of a walk to their destination, but it still felt like they had walked into another country. Despite the distance it felt a little bit like home, or Hong Kong.

The place Carol led them to was called Lucky Star 99. It was a combination of a teahouse and an ethnic market, and it took some effort from Skyler to filter out most of the spam that assailed them. After that felt sorted out he loaded up a Cantonese and Mandarin linguasoft to better read the Chinese written signs that were no longer being translated with public AROs.

The linguasofts felt artificial to him as they worked to allow him to understand the foreign languages. He knew he could have threaded them into a complex form, but did not want the extra distractions that brought. This way was less distracting.

"What is with all of this?" Stomper asked. It looked like he was struggling with some invisible foe, and loosing.

"You know how to set your filters?" Skyler asked.

"Yeah."

"Turn 'em up to the max." Skyler said, shaking his head.

"_Was I this bad when I started?_" Mina silently asked.

"_Hardly._" Skyler told her.

There were several empty tables about, with one loaded with six men sitting around it. Two of them were watching Skyler and the group rather intently. The others were more intent on a discussion about two urban brawlers.

"_I don't think they're too interested in customers._" Mina silently said.

He noticed what she was talking about. Even without the extra enhancements from his goggles Skyler could see the lumps underneath their coats that were large handguns. Their stares at him and his openly carried weapons unnerved Skyler just a little. It almost felt like the guards were going to jump him just for openly carrying a handgun, let alone a sword.

"You guys go sit over there. I'll try talking to them." Carol said.

Skyler and Mina both pulled up chairs to sit down. Mark did the same while Roadblock and Stomper stood.

Stomper seemed to get impatient quite quickly while Carol first joined in on the urban brawl conversation, fluidly using Cantonese with the others.

"Slap a patch, will ya?" Skyler said to Stomper when it looked like he was about to storm the place.

"It's just taking too long." Stomper muttered. "Maybe if you two were a little more discrete with how you carry yourselves we could have what we need and be on our way by now."

"What're you talking 'bout?" Skyler asked.

"Not many people openly carry weapons while on Manhattan." Mark said.

"Haven't had any cops try to talk to us about them." Skyler said.

"We got licenses and everything for them." Mina added.

"'Sides, Stomper's the one who'll be in deep shit, not us." Skyler told them.

"What do you mean by that?" Mark asked.

Rather than say anything Skyler held up his left arm level towards Mark with the palm facing him. With his right hand in the shape of a handgun he placed it next to his left arm.

It was hard to notice, but Skyler saw Mark's gaze shift from his pantomimed cybergun imitation to look at Stomper. "I see." he said softly.

"Hey guys, we'll get to go in in a bit." Carol said, walking up to them.

"Fuck. Why not just bust the door down?" Stomper asked.

"He always this impatient?" Mark asked, ignoring Stomper's question.

"Don't know. We've never really worked with him before." Skyler answered.

"Bet he blows his wad before sticking it in." muttered Mina.

Roadblock almost choked on his drink.

"What was that?" Stomper asked.

Carol bit her lip to keep from busting out laughing.

"Quite the mouth, kid." commented Mark.

It took all of Skyler's efforts to keep from laughing.

One of the six other men stood and waved them over. Catching his ID more clearly showed his name was Hua Tien.

"That's our cue." Carol told them.

Hua led them to a somewhat discreet door, the kind you could easily miss if you were not looking for one. He held the door open as everyone walked into a back room. There were no windows, the lighting was not too bright, and the air musty with a hint of green tea.

Two Chinese men, both human, sat at a table. They both wore high priced looking suits, their black hair cut short and sharply. It was not difficult for Skyler to figure from the looks alone, which included several duffel bags at one of the man's feet, that they were negotiating a drug deal. He really hoped Stomper would be able to keep his mouth shut.

After a few minutes the two reached an agreement. One slid a credstick to the other, who then stood and left through the same door they came in.

"So, I understand you need information about a particular person." the remaining man said, speaking in slightly accented English. His ID said his name was Soon Shan.

"How do…" Stomper started to say, but shut himself up when Skyler elbowed him in the ribs.

"Yes. We're looking for a Chinese woman by the name of Lin Yao." Carol said.

"Yes, I know this name." Soon told them.

"And?" Stomper asked.

Skyler elbowed the ork in the side again, making him grunt. He was guessing that the information would not come cheap, and Stomper's impatience could really screw up this social dance they all were involved in.

"You could do well to keep your dog muzzled." Soon said offhandedly.

"He's not local." Carol said.

"That is no excuse." Soon said.

Skyler thought he heard Stomper growl.

"Hopefully your dog will be able to understand," Soon said with incredible calmness, taking a sip of tea from a small ceramic cup, "that information does not come freely. I can provide you assistance for… twelve thousand, five hundred dollars."

"That's outrageous!" Stomper cried.

At the speed of thought Skyler had an ARO open and was looking into currency conversion rates.

"Maybe you can find someone more reasonable in Jersey who can help you?" Soon asked.

"Can't you keep your mouth shut?" Skyler asked. "Shit! Things work differently here."

"And don't try to think you can pound the information out of him." Mark added. "You will be on your own."

To help emphasize Mark's point, Skyler and Mina both took a few steps away from Stomper.

"By the way, UCAS dollars to nuyen's five to one." Skyler said.

"Now what'd it be, bad _guanxi_ if he tried to beat him up?" Mina asked.

"Very bad." Soon said. "I am surprised someone so… Western looking would know about _guanxi_."

"We learned a bit about it on a job in Hong Kong last week." Skyler said.

"Interesting." commented Soon.

"Even so, the price does seem a little steep." Carol said. "If by chance there is an alternative?"

"Yes, actually, there is." Soon told them. "I am a little shorter on time than I expected for today, so if you could make a delivery for me." He stood and walked over to a table where he picked up a box. It was twenty centimeters to a side, and apparently not that heavy considering how Soon handled it. He walked back and handed it to Carol.

"Give this to the receptionist for the curator of transgenic art at the Museum Of Modern Art. I will message them to let them know you are delivering this for me."

Looking at the others Skyler caught Mark nodding just a little, but nothing from Roadblock.

"I know exactly where that is." Carol said, accepting the package.

"Right, let's go." Mark said, leading the way back out.

"So that's it?" Stomper asked as he left the back room.

"We'll be back here soon enough." Carol said. "Ten minutes, tops."

"Fuck it." cussed Stomper.

The front men were quite sharp. Two of them were up and right in Stomper's way just as he turned around to head back into the back room. With all the manners of a drunkard he took a swing at one of them.

"_Stun Stomper._" Skyler quickly sent to Mina. With a twitch of his arms his Morrissey Élan pistols were in his hands.

Stomper took a swing at one of the Chinese men and missed.

Skyler squeezed off a shot from both holdouts, the stick-n-shock rounds hitting the two closest to Stomper squarely. The bullets made almost no noise, dropping one while the other staggered back from the shock he received from the stun round.

Stomper was not looking too good either. Skyler figured Mina really hit him hard with her stun spell, but not enough to knock him out. At least it had been enough to drop the ork to his knees.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" Skyler yelled, alternating between Cantonese and Mandarin.

Surprisingly Hua and the other three actually stopped. A quick glance told Skyler that it was probably because Stomper was looking quite unsteady on his feet.

"Speak Mandarin." Hua said in Mandarin.

"Hope you've got something good, kid." Mark said softly in English. "What happened to him, Athena?"

"We'll educate the dog in manners." Skyler said in Mandarin, "And we'll tie him up outside when we return." He dropped his arms to his sides, but kept hold of his pistols.

"Girl walloped him with a hefty stun spell." Carol, or Athena, said, answering Mark's question.

"Confident you will be welcome back." Hua said in Mandarin. He and the others looked a little more relaxed, and Skyler was glad they had not decided to try to take advantage of not having any guns pointed at them.

"We're doing a favor. It would be bad _guanxi_ if we did not return to finish it." Skyler replied in Mandarin.

"Should've let me…" Stomper started to say as Roadblock helped him to his feet. A good jostle from the minotaur was enough to shut him up for a bit.

"Be glad I didn't use fire, dipshit." Mina said.

Hua nodded knowingly towards Skyler.

Skyler let his holdouts slide back up the sleeves of his jacket. He followed the others back out, watching as Roadblock helped Stomper walk. He was the last one out the door.

"You've got some balls there, kid." Mark said once they were at least a block away from the Lucky Star 99. It looked like they were heading back to the same metro station.

"Now you believe me when I say I'm a good shot?" Skyler asked.

"Maybe." Mark answered. "Might've also been better to just leave him to his stupidity."

"Too bad stupidity's painful to everyone else." Skyler said softly.

"Now are you serious about that fire?" Athena asked. Looking up at her Skyler saw the question was directed at Mina.

"Yeah, serious." Mina replied. "Could've melted the chrome off his ass." She said it with such seriousness that if one did not know she was not really a preteen girl, her whole attitude would have been laughable.

Now if she had really been pissed off she would have called up her bound guardian spirit she called Baradiel. The last time she had, the powerful spirit had plastered several attacking soldiers, and Mina had even told him a magician had killed himself in a very unsuccessful attempt to banish Baradiel.

"Hold up. What?" Athena asked. She apparently was more confused than amused by Mina's answer.

Everyone stopped, though Mina took a few more steps before turning to look at the elfin woman. She then lifted her goggles off to look Athena in the eye, which with even her platform heels there was still about forty centimeters difference between the two.

"Fire." Mina said flatly. "I could've burned him just as easily instead. Probably would've torched one of those Chinese guys instead."

Mina and Athena stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, something like those mental showdowns that kept cycling in and out of the oriental made trids.

"Shit." Athena cussed, breaking their standoff.

"What is it?" Mark asked.

"Let's get moving." Athena said, starting them off again. "Was just thinking on that spell she did. Figuring if it was a flamethrower she probably would've incinerated his head."

"I'd've dodged." Stomper said.

"You didn't even know I was there." Mina countered, having already secured her goggles back on. "If the AC hadn't been on I'd've gagged on your B.O."

"Just how powerful was it, her spell?" Mark asked.

"I coulda gone double." Mina said like it was nothing.

Looking at Athena, Skyler could see she was in thought again.

"If I could even do that kind of magic, that's more power than I can handle." Athena finally said.

Skyler wondered if part of that power came from the focus Mina wore at her neck, a choker of black silk with a black metal clasp, and a pendant or something of the same black metal and silver made to look like his signature icon in the matrix. He knew quite well it amplified her power, but still was not quite sure how it worked. Sometimes he doubted if he could even understand it.

"We're not delivering a bomb or something, are we?" Mark asked.

"Let me see it, please." Skyler said, stepping up to Athena. With a thought he activated the scanner built into his fake cybernetic hand and swept it close to the package while they walked. Through his connection to it he could actually see the contents inside the box.

"There's three separate objects inside," Skyler told them as he continued scanning the box, "and I think a lot of padding. Doesn't look like a bomb."

"So we shouldn't have any problems." Athena said.

From the Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall station they went up through Grand Central to 51st Street, and transferred to another metro line to get out at the station at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street East. It was only a block to walk from there to the Manhattan Museum Of Modern Art.

Athena went in alone with the package while everyone else waited outside. A minute later she was back out again. Instead of backtracking they took another metro line from the Fifth Avenue station down to Broadway-Lafayette before switching back to the other metro line through Bleeker Street.

Stomper seemed rather frustrated with the subway line, having made more than one comment about not being able to go from any one station to any other station on the island. Skyler and Mina left it to the others to educate him. Neither of them really had any solid grasp on civil engineering, and figured it best to just take the metro as it had been laid out.

For Skyler the whole train system for mass transit was quite interesting. His home town of Seattle had no subway, and it was pretty much take the bus or drive your own car around. It was also virtually the same for Denver, though if you could afford it you could get private air taxis to be able to fly over the borders. Then there were also a few monorail lines, though they were actually better for crossing Denver rather than commuting about.

But Manhattan did seem to share one thing with Denver, and that was plenty of short hopping aircraft buzzing about in the sky above them.

Mina also seemed to like the metro system in Manhattan.

Hua and the others were expecting them when they returned to the Lucky Star 99.

Roadblock held up an open hand to Stomper like a guard telling a person to stop, then pointed to a spot just to the side from the door to the Lucky Star 99.

"What?" Stomper asked.

"Remember the shit you tried to pull?" Skyler asked.

"Kid here said you'd stay outside when we came back." Mark added. "I'm sure it's the only way we'd be able to get in to get the info we need."

Stomper did not look happy as he leaned against the wall next to the door.

Hua stepped in Skyler's way as they headed to the back door. "You must do something before entering." he said in accented English.

"What? Want me to go get you pizza?" Skyler asked.

"It is much simpler. Everyone leave your weapons on the table." Hua said.

"Okay, but if you do anything you're gonna wish we didn't stop the other guy." Skyler said. With a twitch of his left arm he caught the holdout. He pulled the magazine and ejected the round that was readied, slipping the bullet back into the magazine. He then did the same with the holdout hidden up his right arm. These he placed on the table that the Chinese men were using.

Next was his openly holstered Ruger, which clunked heavily on the table.

Rather than bother with undoing his sword belt he pulled his monofilament sword from its scabbard and placed it flat on the table next to his Ruger.

Just when everyone thought he was done Skyler pulled out the two spare magazines for the Morrissey Élans out of the pockets of his jacket. Then came his Predators, but the looks of disbelief came when he slipped his hand up his back and withdrew his Eichiro Hatamoto II were priceless.

Mina carried substantially less, pulling out her Cougar Fineblade and Sakura Fubuki. For her these were less weapons and more like backup. Her spells and a favored and powerful fire elemental she called Astorath were far more dangerous than her knife or handgun.

Athena only pulled out a small ceramic knife.

While everyone was watching Athena, Skyler slipped out a fly-spy and gave it instructions to hide somewhere so it could get a clear view of the table and their weapons. Keeping an encrypted connection to it he left an ARO open so he could see what the little drone fly's camera could.

"This is everything?" Hua asked, looking at the pile of guns now on the table."

"Well, not the reloads for everything else." Skyler answered. Bullets and slugs were pretty useless weapons without their guns.

"Fine then." Hua said. Finally they were let into the back room.

Soon was still there, seated in the same chair where they first saw him. "A little trouble with your dog, I was told." he said, putting away his commlink.

"He's being a good boy outside." Mark said.

"And I appreciate your civility with my people." Soon added.

"Civility?" Mark asked.

"I think he means me using stun rounds." Skyler said.

"Yes." Soon said. "Now about Lin Yao. We introduced her to an associate by the name of Eddie Stephens." He handed Athena a small piece of paper that was folded in half. "He is not a member."

"I understand." Athena said. "Thank you." As simple as that she bowed her head to Soon and turned to leave.

Skyler felt it was a little too quick and easy as he walked back to the front room. At least he was able to discretely call back his fly-spy while everyone collected their weapons. He thanked Hua for no one trying to mess with them while they spoke with Soon.

"That was fast. So what'd you get?" Stomper asked once everyone was back outside. He sounded rather grumpy.

"Commcode of a guy that helped our target." Athena said, pulling out her commlink. After a little bit she put it back into her pocket. "No answer." she told them.

"Shit." grumbled Stomper, turning back towards the front door to the Lucky Star 99. He did not get far, stopping before he tripped over Mina. "Out of the way, girl."

Mina moved, but instead of out of Stomper's way it was up. She levitated up to look the ork straight in the eye.

Stomper looked a little surprise to see the petite girl staring him down at eye level.

"I don't think you're going anywhere." Mark said darkly.

"That dragon fucker gave us a bad number! I'm gonna pound the truth outta him!"

"Ever think that maybe Eddie's commlink's turned off, asshole!" Skyler yelled back. "Shit!"

"The number's valid." Athena said, "Call went through to an automated messaging service. You know, voice mail?" Her commlink started beeping.

"Who'd be calling you?" Mark asked.

"Same guy I just tried calling." Athena said.

Skyler created an ARO and started sifting through the signals to isolate the call Athena was receiving. It was not too difficult to pull the call's data stream to him so he could listen in on the call.

"So he's calling you back? How considerate." Mark said.

"Hello?" Athena said into her commlink.

"Yo, someone called me from this commcode. What can I do for you?" a male voice asked back.

Skyler could see in the ARO the icon representing the caller, a black bishop's chess piece with a red cape and a gold crown that was tilted to one side. Right away he started tracing the caller.

"Eddie Stephens? You don't know me but I'd like to meet with you. We could use some help you can give us." Athena said.

"Well, not just give." Eddie said.

"Oh, no worries. We can pay."

"Right then. There's a warehouse out on Staten called the Looking Glass."

Skyler created a new ARO and started looking up the Looking Glass.

"I know it." Athena told him.

The trace resolved itself to a spot on Staten Island.

"I'm here all day." Eddie said, ending the call.

"Where to?" Mark asked.

"A rave called the Looking Glass. It's down on Staten Island." Athena told them.

The initial information on the Looking Glass gave Skyler the address. It happened to be in the same area where he traced Eddie to.

It was back to the same metro station again for a short trip to the southern tip of the island. From there it was an easy check leaving Manhattan and a slow ferry trip south to Staten Island.

"Know anything 'bout this Eddie guy?" Skyler asked Athena when they were well underway to Staten Island. They were relatively alone as they watched Liberty Island slowly inch by in the distance.

"Some. Mercenary and business man, deals in cred and identities. Always does meets on his terms." After a pause she asked, "So, what about you three?"

"He's just a bounty hunter." Skyler said, referring to Stomper. "Firefly and I, well, we've been doing stuff like this for about ten months now."

"You really look young, but certainly don't seem new to the game." commented Athena. "Wasn't sure if you two had really started that young or not. And your talk about Europe and Hong Kong sound a bit outrageous if you ask me."

Skyler chuckled. If she believed it he figured Athena would leap out of her skin if she figured out he was about as old as she was.

"And what about you three?" Skyler asked.

"We've done work together before. Pushing close to two years now, I think." Athena answered. "So, does she know the truth about your arm?"

"She suggested it." Skyler replied. He remembered that Athena was awakened, so it was no real big surprise that she could read auras and figure out that his cybernetic arm was a fake.

"You don't sound surprised I know."

"You know Firefly's a spellslinger. She told me you're awakened and they're heavy on the implants."

Athena whistled. "Dang, you kids aren't the slouches I thought you'd be when I first saw you." Something seemed a little off to Skyler about how she said that.

"_Something's bugging me about the other three._" Skyler silently said to Mina, "_Can you give them another aura read?_"

"_I'll ask a spirit. I don't feel I'm all that good about it._" Mina replied.

A short while later Mina silently sent, "_Shit! Maybe I should ask spirits to do more aura reads for me. They're all awakened. The guys mask their auras to make themselves look like sleepers somehow. They're all about equally powerful._"

"Guess you guys ain't slouches either." Skyler said. He looked over to Athena before adding, "Even the guys are magical. Just as strong as you are."

Athena stared at him, her mouth hanging open in shock and surprise. For a moment he thought she might be trying to read his aura again. "How the fuck do you know that?" she asked. "You're a sleeper."

Skyler let a small smile slip. "Yeah, I can't do magic. But Firefly and I, we're closer than you think." he said.

"So maybe she asked a spirit," Athena reasoned, "but that doesn't…"

Athena stopped when Skyler started tapping the side of his goggles. "Encrypted connection." he said. He could see the light bulb switch on in her mind at the realization.

"So the two of you use trodes and some private chat to stay in communication." Athena said. "Yeah, you certainly ain't as green as that ork is. Hacked his 'link earlier. Would've done you kids, too, 'cept yours're trapped."

Again Skyler allowed himself to smile. He remembered his first job a month after waking up without any memories of who, or what, he was. First meeting he had hacked everyone's commlink. Since then he really only saved that for when he felt he had to prove himself to new runners who did not know, or believe, who he was.

The rest of the trip to Staten Island was spent in relative silence. After the ferry it was a short train trip south to the club.

The Looking Glass was a twenty-four hour rave club. True to Eddie's word it was in a converted warehouse. The subsonics could be felt in the chest from the parking lot as they approached.

"Bet you ain't got anything like this in Denver." Athena said when they reached the front door.

"I know a few that'd probably be close." Skyler said.

"Makes me think of Denim." Mina commented.

"I was kinda thinking Klub Karma. That place was also built in a warehouse."

Security turned out to be quite a bit tighter than Denim or Klub Karma. Just inside there were two archways that were clearly high end scanners. Skyler saw a red light flash as one clubber walked through, and when confronted pull out a Hammerli 620S from his pocket. He turned over the handgun like he was checking his coat and after walking back through, this time with a green light flashing on, was allowed in.

"I'll wait outside." Mark told them.

"Thought you'd fit right in." commented Stomper.

"I have my reasons." Mark said, sounding like that was it on the matter.

"_He's got blades in his arms._" Mina silently told Skyler.

Mark continued, "Besides, even if the kids could somehow bullshit their way in, the walking arsenal that Alton here is will still get him caught at the door."

"_Being young looking and cute ain't always what it's cracked up to be._" grumbled Mina.

"_Preachin' to the choir._" Skyler replied.

"He won't get the chance. They absolutely won't let in anyone that looks like they're under aged. Hell, even gnomes have problems." Athena said. "So it looks like it's just you and me, Roadblock."

Roadblock nodded.

"And what am I, chopped liver?" Stomper asked indignantly.

"I don't think you're that valuable." Mina muttered under her breath.

"No, you're armed." Skyler said, "And unless you can take your arms off you ain't getting' past those scanners."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Stomper said.

"Oh, please." Skyler said, rolling his head around once. "I've got just as good a scanner in my hand." he said as he held up his left hand.

"And so do I." Athena added, the drone in her hair twitching. "This thing ain't just for looks you know. I already know you've got a shotgun in one arm and a submachine gun in the other. Now if I know that then the club security is certainly gonna know it too."

Depending on how much time Athena had spent in Stomper's commlink, she could have just as well gotten the details there instead. Skyler had managed that a few times himself.

"Besides, it's not like we won't be able to follow along with what's going on in there." Skyler added.

"Shit, don't tell me you're gonna that to me again." Athena said.

Skyler pulled a fly-spy out of his pocket. "Don't have to." he said as it quietly zipped from his hand to her hair. "We'll be able to see and hear through it just fine."

"Just don't drive it into my ear or anything, okay?" Athena asked.

Skyler said nothing as he opened up an ARO for the fly-spy, encrypting the connection and keeping a virtual eye on the link to try and catch anyone that might try to break in.

While Roadblock and Athena went inside, the others headed over to a bench to sit down. He made read-only copies of the ARO for the others so they all could see and hear what the drone did.

Inside the Looking Glass was something quite different from Denim, but the music was just as loud. Not far inside the place opened up into a raver's paradise. Skyler was grateful for the flare compensation in the drone's optics, being able to filter out the flashing strobe lights so they could see normally.

Along the north wall was the club's only bar, along with chairs that were scattered around the edge of the main room and around a recessed dance area. There was a single theme to the artwork that decorated the walls, but numerous interpretations. It was all of Alice In Wonderland, ranging from classical to American McGee to truly bizarre. This extended into augmented reality. Even some of the walls were decorated for AR only, presenting virtual reflections of the person.

It took some time for them to find Eddie, and it looked like Athena was using the commcode to trace his location. Eddie was a Caucasian human that was just shy of two meters tall, slim, bald, and dressed in a way that was best described as steampunk meets goth.

"Eddie?" Athena asked.

"Yeah. Can I help ya?"

"I called earlier about some help."

Eddie waved to Athena and Roadblock to follow him.

"Really nice gear, kid." commented Mark.

"You should see Laserbeak and Buzzsaw." Skyler replied, rattling off the names of his two Renraku yokujin drones. "They're really kitted for surveillance."

Eddie had led Athena and Roadblock to a more private, and quieter, part of the club. "So, who sent you?"

"Did a favor for Soon Shan." Athena said, "Said you helped our mark. Name's Lin Yao."

"Yeah, he texted me. And yeah, name sounds familiar." Eddie said. "Meter-fifty, Chinese, a real 'no nonsense' bitch."

"Yeah, that sounds like her." commented Mina.

"Laundered her some cash and set her up with a fake ID." Eddie said.

Stomper grumbled.

"Any way you can help us track her down?" Athena asked.

"Well, I could try a balance check on her credstick." Eddie said. He then started waving his hand in the air, interacting with a private ARO interface. "Can't trace it. Was to an anonymous person."

"Certified credstick to certified credstick." Skyler said.

"Thought those were untraceable." commented Stomper.

"Not if you dig deep enough into the bits." Skyler said, "Such a pain in the ass to do it, though." He had never tried this himself, but had gathered as much from a few other hackers he knew.

"So got any suggestions?" asked Athena.

"I can run a search, but it'll cost ya twelve-fifty dollars." Eddie told her.

"Just how'd you do this search?" Athena asked.

"I've got my sources." Eddie told her.

After a second pause Athena said, "Facial rec on the public cameras and MeFeeds."

"Hey, supposed to be a trade secret!" Eddie said a little loudly.

"I won't tell, but I think we might be able to manage that on our own anyway. We'll keep ya in mind if we need anything." Athena told him.

By the time Roadblock and Athena were back outside, Skyler was already between the virtual and real worlds, threading himself a connection between his facial recognition software, his ability to search the matrix in general for information, and the image he had of Lin Yao. He even called up his data sprite for assistance in processing the information.

"You could've pressed for more info." Stomper said.

"I could've hacked your link to pay him." Skyler countered as he and his sprite slowly worked a facial recognition form through the MeFeeds of Manhattan.

"Seriously?" Stomper asked scornfully.

"Sounds like you've done that before." commented Athena.

"Almost." Skyler said. Closer to the truth was when he hacked the commlink of a mid-level corporate executive when he reneged on paying them for a job.

"So are you going to run that facial recognition program to find her?" asked Mark.

"Prepping it now." Athena said.

"Too slow, I'm already running one." Skyler told them, feeling pulses of data fly by.

"Wait, what?" Athena asked.

"Started when you two were done with Eddie." Skyler said, "Figured I'd do something to try and help."

"Well, we'll see if you're any good." Athena said. "Anyway, I don't know about you guys but I could go for some lunch right about now."

It was a short walk over to a Nacho Mama, all the while Skyler kept his mind partially in VR to press on with his search. The nice thing about an international fast food chain was that the food, even if it was cheap and not too good for you, was rather consistent throughout.

They all took their time eating. Though he said nothing it was clear that Stomper was feeling very impatient about not doing anything. Even Sarah, his bounty hunter little sister, would have agreed that one should not go chasing skippers on an empty stomach.

It was almost an hour after having met with Eddie Stephens, that Skyler got a hit.

"Found her." he told the others as he pulled up the image into a fresh ARO.

"Seriously?" Mark asked.

Skyler tagged the image so the others could see it. Once everyone could see the rendered three dimensional image he highlighted Lin Yao, who had been caught in the peripheral vision of OrkGodss72's MeFeed only hours ago.

"Yup, that's her." Mark said.

"Dang, kid is good." commented Athena.

Skyler smiled.

"So, hot shot, where is she?" Stomper asked.

"Looks like it's from the subway entrance into the MDC." Mark said. "Gonna be a problem."

"Naw, we just walk on in." Stomper said.

"The MDC's building is in the Upper Eastside. We can't even get into the area unless we've got a white pass of some kind." Athena said.

"Hey, um, not to sound stupid, but what's the color deal with the passes?" Mina asked.

"Red's a visitor's pass, like what we all have." Athena said. "Blue means you've got a work permit, but you still can't go everywhere on the island. The blue-white mixed is an upper class work permit that'll let you go anywhere, including the white zones. And white means you're upper class that actually lives on the island."

"Can't ya just hack our passes to change the color?" Stomper asked.

I could edit a handgun license to include rifles, but the first time it's used you're fucked." Skyler said. "Besides, I doubt she's got a white pass."

"There's a lot more to a pass than what's on your link." Athena added, "Anyway, security's super tight just getting in. MAD scanners, chemsniffers, the works. One bullet on you and NYPD Inc. will be looking into you."

"Even on the subway entrance?" Mina asked.

"Especially at the subway entrance. It's the only way into the building with anything but a white pass." Mark said.

"But the security into the building's just as tight." Athena told them.

"Even if I stashed 'em they still might." Skyler said, "Unless there's gun ranges here where people do target practice."

"There's a few." Mark said.

"And I do have permits for my guns." Skyler said, "All of 'em."

Stomper grunted. "Just how good are they?" he asked.

"Best that money can buy." Mina answered.

"My guy's good. Never fucked with us on anything." Skyler added.

"So you think you'll be able to just walk on in?" Athena asked.

"We'll deal with the cops if it doesn't work. You can just go on and do whatever." Skyler said.

"Alright, but it's your asses." Athena said.

After a long ferry trip back to Manhattan, and another easy pass through security to get back onto the island, it was a short walk to a metro station that would take them to the Manhattan Development Consortium's subway entrance.

"Hey, what about those?" Mina asked.

Skyler looked to where Mina was pointing. Along one wall was a bank of rental lockers.

"Yeah, if there's any this side of the next stop." Skyler said.

"And if there aren't?" Athena asked.

"We'll… think of something." Skyler answered.

After passing the light security check to get onto the metro, Skyler and Mina spotted more rental lockers. He felt hopeful that they would have an option once they got to the stop at the Manhattan Development Consortium.

Once they got there it was clear that the security checkpoint to leave the subway station for the MDC building was certainly no joke. Several scanner archways were set to allow many people to pass through and still be individually scanned.

"Over there." Athena said. She led them to a wall with a collection of more rental lockers. Even these were high class with a biometric scan and numeric passcode to secure the contents. She chose one, opened it, and slipped her knife into it.

"Trust me to watch your sword?" Mark asked. It sounded genuine since the locker was too small to fit his sword.

"Not really." Skyler said as he slipped out a fly-spy before working on the holsters to his holdouts.

"Doubt security will let you walk in with it."

Skyler finished putting his handguns and their ammo into the locker before turning to face Mark. The man's solid black eyes were still unnerving.

"We ain't done anything to trust each other." Skyler said, watching through an encrypted ARO as the fly-spy zipped off to hide on top of the bank of lockers. "Right now I trust you about as far as I could throw you." Regardless of how he felt he still undid his sword belt and handed the weapon to Mark. "But I also don't think I've got a choice."

Mark said nothing as he took the sword.

The afternoon traffic was relatively light through the security checkpoint. That meant that despite the throng of people going in and out there was no having to actually wait in line to get through.

Stomper, who was just ahead of Skyler, was stopped by two NYPD Inc. officers just after he passed the scanners.

"If you could come this way, please?" one of them asked.

"No, I'm a bit busy right now." Stomper said.

"_What happened?_" Mina silently asked as Skyler slipped his way by.

"_I think he forgot about the ammo in his cyberguns._" Skyler replied as Mina caught up to him.

Whatever their results were from the scanners, the NYPD Inc. officers did not seem to care as two more came to help with Stomper.

Athena waved them over, and they hurried out of the way.

"What happened?" she asked them.

"He's got like two dozen rounds of ammo in his arms." Skyler answered.

"Disarming him literally means taking his arms off." Roadblock said in slightly accented English, his voice a deep baritone.

Skyler looked up at the minotaur in surprise. He had actually started to wonder if Roadblock could actually speak.

"Ah, got it." Athena said. "We'll see what we can do to help later."

"Kinda made me think of Billy for a bit." Mina said aloud as they headed over to a collection of elevators.

"Who?" asked Athena as she walked into the elevator first.

"Billy. A chromed idiot and asshole we used to work with." Skyler answered. "Don't forget Gecko. He was a bit better, though."

"Dumb, but not an asshole." Mina added.

"Bad luck with cybered partners?" Athena asked.

"Not really. My sister's cybered." Skyler said. "Did several jobs with her."

"But not quite as much as he is." Mina said, pointing to Roadblock.

The elevator ride up was rather quick, the top of the ride ending at the lobby level of the MDC building. Even the signal to his fly-spy was not interrupted, with no unusual activity in it, his connection, or in what Mark was doing while he waited for them.

The main lobby was quite impressive as they walked out from the elevators. It was bustling with activity as people came and went or met with others for face-to-face networking. Even the walls were busy, with an AR wallpaper of chaotically shifting colors. It reminded Skyler of the Tower Of Babel back in Denver's Hub. The club there had several virtual floors, with the raw data of the node's traffic represented in AR by a rainbow of colors.

"I'm gonna try talking to the receptionist." Athena said, "Wait here. And don't get any ideas, hot shot."

Looking around at everything Skyler was already getting ideas. The webwork of wireless signals was incredible, and it was not all from just commlinks.

In a nation that had gone overboard with security it was no surprise to find that there were security cameras all over the place to try and cover every angle. After a few turns like he was taking in the impressive size of the lobby Skyler figured out which camera had the best view of a collection of chairs and benches that looked like were to be used for waiting guests. Stretching his mind between worlds he isolated that camera and began working quickly to get past its firewall.

"_You're doing something, aren't you?_" Mina silently said.

"_Cameras are all wireless. I'm just hacking into one right now._" Skyler told her just as he breached the camera's firewall.

The inside of the node was rather simplistic. After looking around to what the camera had Skyler found that it kept the last twelve hours of what it recorded in local memory. Skyler pulled a copy and uploaded it to the commlink that was built into his fake cyberarm. Once the file transfer was complete he edited the file to remove the record of the file activity, wiped the traces of his logging into the camera, and quickly disconnected his mind from it.

"Well, got some good news." Athena told them as she walked back to them. "The receptionist said she remembers our person of interest. Said she checked in for an appointment at ten this morning."

"So where's that put us?" Mina asked, "Besides half behind her."

Accessing the recorded video Skyler jumped to the same time that Orkgodss72 had tagged Lin Yao in her MeFeed. From there he fast forwarded until he saw Lin Yao enter the lobby.

"At least she ain't lying." Skyler said. "She showed up fifteen minutes early."

"Oh God, you didn't." Athena groaned.

Mina giggled.

"Just a camera." Skyler said, still skimming through his copy of the security footage. At high speed he saw Lin Yao try talking to a Latino elf who wore business attire along with AR glasses and gloves. The elf left at about 10.20, leaving Lin Yao in the lobby. When the timer reached 11.30 it looked like Lin Yao was told to leave.

"Right, hot shot, so what all happened?" Athena asked.

"She tried chatting up some Latino elf chick and got stood up for her meeting." Skyler said. "She left at about eleven-thirty." Looking around, Skyler added, "Oh, there's the elf now."

It seemed to be a bit of an advantage having to broadcast your ID everywhere in Manhattan, seeing the woman's name as Mara Blaine as she walked towards the receptionist's desk.

"C'mon." Athena said hurriedly as she tried to intercept the Latino elf without looking like she was in a hurry.

Skyler took a moment to look back through his fly-spy's eye. Mark was still standing in the same spot, not having moved since they left him there. Stomper was also with him, apparently having been turned back by security.

"Ah, Mara, this is Carol." the receptionist said when they got close, "Mara works as a security consultant for a few corporations in the building. Carol was interested in Summer, the woman who sat next to you earlier this morning."

"Yes, if maybe we could talk for a bit?" Athena asked.

"Sure." Mara said, handing a tagged badge to the receptionist. "But at the bench over there?"

"Sure."

They all walked back to the waiting area and sat down. Except for Roadblock, who had to stand due to nothing there looking like it could hold him for too long.

"You and Summer talked?" Athena asked.

"_Quite a bit._" Skyler silently said to Mina as he scrolled back through the video.

"A bit, yes." Mara said, "It wasn't anything big, really. Weather, travel, and trids. Kinda felt a little weird when I figured she was flirting with me. Hey, it's all nice and all, but I'm not really into that sort of thing."

"Pitty." Athena said softly. "So what'd you do to try and break the tension?"

"I showed her this data-traffic analysis program I've been working on." Mara said. "It works with the node sculpting here."

"So all the colors represent the node's traffic data?" Skyler asked. Turned out the AR decoration was more like the Tower Of Babel than he thought.

"Exactly. Um, how'd you figure that?" Mara asked.

"There's this club over in Denver that does the same thing." Skyler said.

"Kid's a tech nut." Athena added.

"So what's this program do?" Skyler asked.

"Well, the admins can pick up on a hacking attempt based on the colors, but my program can take that a step further and uses the color changes to actually trace the user." Mara said. "Here, I can show you."

Mara pulled out a small holoprojector from her handbag and placed it on the table next to the bench. "This was recorded while Summer and I talked. According to my program, these particular purple strands in the node sculpting are pulses of data going to and from here and Horizon's private node. But I'm sorry, I've got to go now." She collected her holoprojector and walked off.

"Well, we're not too far behind, I think." Skyler said.

"But if she had a meeting, why'd she get stood up?" Mina asked.

"I'll see if the receptionist can help with that one. Wait here." Athena said.

After a brief chat with the receptionist Athena came right back to them, waving for them to follow her as she walked to the elevators.

"Summer said something about going to Penn Station to talk to some freelancers just before she left." Athena told them, "She wouldn't tell me why the meeting was canceled 'cause she wasn't told."

Leaving the MDC building was a lot easier than getting in when it came to passing through the security checkpoint. NYPD Inc. was apparently a lot more concerned about the people coming in than going out.

"So, what'd you learn?" Mark asked, handing Skyler his sword back.

"We gotta head to Terminal." Athena answered as she keyed the lock to the locker.

"What? Shit, just how long's this goose chase gonna go on." muttered Stomper.

"Switch off. We're like half an hour behind her." Skyler said as he finished fixing his sword belt. He was quick to accept his handguns as they were passed to him, holstering them and stashing reloads back into his pockets. While the others were distracted he called back his fly-spy.

Glancing around at the other people as they walked back to the subway platform, Skyler found it a little interesting that no one seemed to notice or really care that he had stashed half a dozen handguns on himself just outside what was supposed to be an extremely secured building.

Athena led the way on the transit system, explaining on the first leg that the fastest way would be to take the subway to Grand Central, followed by Penn Station. She also warned them that Terminal was not the kind of place for tourists, and certainly not a place for kids.

Not like that was going to stop Skyler and Mina from going in with the others anyway. From the impressions that the elf woman was giving both felt that the place would be a lot like the Aurora Warrens back in Denver.

Penn Station certainly did not give the feel of Terminal that Athena had been telling them. The station was neat, orderly, and only people with white or blue-white passes were waiting to take the subway back to Grand Central.

It was not until they were back on the surface, and stepping outside of Penn Station that they got a better feel for Terminal. Security was not a problem going out, and Skyler even got a compliment about his sword from one of the NYPD Inc. officers as they left the station.

Outside felt more like the Arvada Barrens than the Aurora Warrens. The wireless coverage was overwhelming, thick with spam for coffin motels, sex parlors, and more. And once you were able to cut that out of your vision you could see the various drug dealers and enforcers walking the streets. None of them looked like they were working for NYPD Inc.

And like everywhere else on Manhattan, everyone was broadcasting their ID for all to see. One of the bigger differences Skyler noticed was that the vast majority of those IDs had red tags, and there was no shortage of black ones. No one was sporting a blue or white ID tag wherever he looked.

"So how're we gonna track her down?" Mark asked as they walked out of the main entrance of Penn Station.

"If she's good with spirits, the girl can ask one for help." Athena said.

"What? Why the fuck didn't we have her do this before?" asked Stomper as they headed up along Eighth Avenue.

"The farther away a person is the harder it is for a spirit to find." Athena said. "If she's close, then it won't take long at all.

"Looks like we won't have to ask a spirit." Mark said, pointing off at a coffin motel.

Skyler thought the timing could not have been better. Lin Yao, or Summer Xaio as her projected ID said, was walking out of the coffin motel Mark was pointing at. He could see her nod to several tough looking thugs next to a falafel cart, most of who were eating. The thugs nodded back to Lin Yao and started walking down the street with her, eating the remains of their lunch as they went.

"Think you can restrain yourself?" Skyler asked Stomper.

"What the fuck do you think I am?" Stomper asked back.

Skyler groaned, knowing it was better he did not answer and now wishing he had not asked the question in the first place.

"So why not jump 'em now?" asked Stomper. For once Skyler felt like agreeing with the ork.

"Too public." Mark explained, "We do it now we'll still get NYPD on us. We're right in line with one of their gates in, and they've got eyes in the sky." He pointed up at an overhead helicopter.

With a thought Skyler's contact lenses zoomed in on the overhead helicopter. When the image enhanced itself, and another sensor program gave him the details from that enhanced image, he saw the reason for Mark's concern.

"What's the big deal?" Stomper asked.

"Um, how 'bout an Ingram White Knight machinegun?" Skyler asked back, looking at Stomper. "That bird's armed."

"And the NYPD don't mess around." Athena added.

As tough as Stomper thought he was, he apparently knew well enough that even he could not take on someone with a machinegun of any.

As carefully and discretely as they could they followed Lin Yao and her crew of hired thugs. It was not all that difficult with the collection of other people walking up and down along West 38th Street. About halfway between 8th and 9th Avenues they turned off into a parking structure.

Mark stopped just outside the same entrance with the others just behind him.

"What's the holdup?" asked Stomper.

"Tryin' not to tip them off that they're being followed." Mark answered.

"I've called a spirit to help hide us." Mina said. "As long as we're sneaky it'll be able to help them look the other way."

"All of us?" Athena asked.

"You should've seen the fire elemental she conjured last week when she was really pissed. Tore through an Aguilar-GX like it was tin foil." Skyler said.

Mina simply bobbed her head in agreement. For reasons untold she never bound the spirit Astorath, but also never called upon it for anything other than fighting.

"Right, so keep it quiet." Mark told them as he took the lead going into the parking structure.

Skyler wondered about the skill of Lin Yao's thugs as they followed her. Sometimes he even wondered about his own skills, would he be so diligent in noticing a tail if roles were reversed?

After a few minutes of trailing, and a few close calls, Lin Yao met up with another group of people. For Skyler and Mina it was easy enough to melt into the shadows, hiding between a sedan and a large SUV. Athena was soon with them.

There were eight men in total. Only one of them wore a suit, while the other seven wore full body armor with masked helmets. The suit had his identity concealed with an AR logo of Horizon over his head, which after a few seconds of concentration Skyler was able to partially force from his view. They were also close enough to hear what was being said.

"You are very persistent, Lin Yao." the suit said. "Yes, we figured out who you really are. If you hand over the information you promised to Horizon, we'll overlook your breach of etiquette and lies to the company."

"And if I do not?" Lin Yao asked.

"Then you should leave New York and never try to lie to anyone in Horizon again." the suit answered.

"Alright, I'll help make that happen." Stomper said loudly, stepping out into the open.

"Shit!" cussed Athena through clenched teeth.

"Who are you?" the suit asked.

"Just someone who's hired to bring her home." Stomper told them.

Skyler closed his eyes and groaned.

"Shoot him." Lin Yao said with dead calmness.

Comparing Stomper to Billy hit a new twist when Stomper proved to be a touch slower than the dead street sam. Still the ork had proved to be just a bit faster than Lin Yao's hired thugs. Or maybe he was just lucky.

"Well, hot shot, what're you gonna hack now?" Athena asked over the gunfire.

Skyler reached behind to draw out his Hatamoto II. "Never bring a computer to a gunfight." he answered. He quickly popped up from behind the sedan and shot at one of the thugs protecting Lin Yao, choosing one of the obviously cybered men with her. At the last moment the cybered man twisted just out of the way, the shock lock slug tearing through the corner of a blue 2070 Mercury Comet.

Mark came out of nowhere, lashing out at another of Lin Yao's thugs with a matte black blade that was protruding from one hand. He looked strange, blurry, as he dashed by, gutting the thug viciously.

Just barely noticing another thug aiming at him, Skyler ducked down just in time to avoid a burst of gunfire. "Shit!" he cussed.

"Thought you were a good shot, hot shot." Athena chastised.

"Oh, you want a good shot?" Skyler asked back. He quickly shoved his Hatamoto II back where he had it stashed and drew one of his Ares Predator IVs with one hand and his Ruger Super Warhawk with the other. Carefully he peeked over the sedan's hood to try and figure out who to shoot next.

"I'll give you some cover fire." Mina said aloud, peeking up just a little over the sedan's hood. With her Sakura Fubuki she shot at one of the bald thugs.

Skyler was up just as quick to pop back up. First was a shot from his Predator, dropping the same bald thug that Mina had burned, followed by a lucky shot from his Warhawk that made another thug's head explode. A second shot from his Predator clipped a third thug, while he missed with the follow up from his Warhawk.

Both Mina and Skyler barely noticed a thug gesture at them, blue-white lightning sparking just briefly before lightning lashed out at them. The sedan offered little protection as electricity arced through Skyler's body.

"Ow. Ow. Ow." Skyler went as he pushed himself to his hands and knees.

"Fuck, I wanna burn that fucker." groaned Mina as she pushed herself to sitting upright.

"Oh shit. Ouch." Athena said, not moving.

"You guys alright?" they heard Mark ask.

"No!" Skyler yelled back, "I can't taste my tongue."

"C'mon, we gotta move!" Athena told them.

It felt easier said than done for Skyler as he tried to keep low and out of sight as they began to slip out from behind the sedan. His legs felt like they were asleep, like that numb feeling you get after sitting in the same position for too long.

"'Fraid you ain't goin' nowhere." a gruff voice said.

Mina looked like she was about to scream. Rather than her voice there was fire, catching the thug completely off guard as he got a face full of fire.

From behind Skyler came a knife, hitting the thug by the grip and clattering to the ground.

Oblivious to the thrown knife, the thug was more concerned about his face having been caught on fire. More than just flesh was burning as he tried to run away.

"Thought your fire was just hot hair!" Stomper called out from behind a brown Ford Americar. Next to him was Lin Yao, and she was being inspired to stay close by a Cold Asp that was being pressed into her back.

"Fuck you!" cried Mina. Her lips moved as if she were softly speaking a quick incantation, her hand flashing out and her left arm looking like it was on fire as she unleashed an intense gout of fire.

Her target was not Stomper, as he apparently thought as he ducked down. Lin Yao took to the chance to try and escape as Mina's fire spell rushed past the both of them to catch one of her hired thugs that had tried sneaking around the other side to jump Stomper. The thug briefly screamed before falling over in a greasy burning heap.

Skyler looked to Mina, who was trembling just a little. He holstered his Warhawk before gently taking her outstretched hand. He wished he could have seen her eyes while she panted, almost not recognizing that he was there. She swallowed, calming down some as she looked at the others.

"Please don't tell me you would've dodged that." commented Mark. "You can come out now, it's safe."

Carefully looking around, Skyler saw that the other thugs had been taken care of by the others. Mina was at his side, now leaning on him for support.

Mark was leaning over the body of one of Lin Yao's thugs, wiping blood from the blades that Skyler could now see were protruding from between the man's ring and middle fingers. Once Mark looked satisfied that the blades were clean enough they disappeared into his arms.

Roadblock was just standing there, looking around and paying almost no attention to the fallen thugs. His cybernetic hands were clenched fists.

"Where'd the other guys go?" Skyler asked.

"They beat feet when the shit hit the dragon's tail." Mark said. "Had guns ready, but didn't take any shots."

"And our good friend here almost let our payday slip." Athena told them, escorting Lin Yao back to them. She had one of the former Triad woman's arms pinned high at her back.

"Yeah, looking really good for a dead woman." commented Skyler.

"Have we met?" Lin Yao asked.

"Few times." Skyler told her. "Last time was when you paid for a hit Sottocapo Omar Chavez. Was the team hacker for the job. Too bad you didn't know soon enough we were also paid to hit you too, Mikano Li of Saeder-Krupp."

Lin Yao gave Skyler a look, the kind that said 'how did you know that?' Then she said, "Fine. Okay, I will pay you ten thousand nuyen if you let me go."

"I'd consider it." Stomper said.

Lin Yao winced as Athena lifted the other woman's arm up just a little more. "You won't after you figure out your cut. You'll get paid more to bring her in." Athena told them.

"Hell, our share to kill her last September was three times that." Skyler added. Locating her commlink was easy, and after a quick scan to see if it was clear began a brute force attack against its firewall.

Stomper's jaw dropped like a Thor shot.

Lin Yao looked like she went a shade pale. Skyler figured out that she now really knew who he and Mina were.

"We should go." Roadblock casually said.

"He's right." Mark said, "Cops are sure to have noticed the fight, even in this neighborhood."

Athena's commlink chimed with an incoming call just as Skyler broke into Lin Yao's commlink.

"Kinda weird, isn't it?" Mina asked.

"Not a typical call." Athena told them.

"Answer it, but try to trace it." Mark said.

"On it." Skyler said, sifting through the signals as Athena answered the call. At the same time he also raided Lin Yao's accounts, which was a total of twelve thousand nuyen on a slotted credstick only. That money he sent to a credstick of his own.

"I have a proposition for you." came the suit's voice.

"Yeah, well we ain't interested." Stomper replied.

Skyler had the signal and was dissecting it for the other commlink's ID.

"Be quite." Athena said sharply to Stomper. "Sorry, he's not local."

"And he doesn't speak for all of us, either." Skyler added. He had the ID and was tracing it as he spoke, wiping the trace evidence from Lin Yao's commlink.

"Fine. It's a simple enough of a thing for you to do." the suit said. "In exchange for Lin Yao all you have to do is leave her commlink behind."

"Is that all?" Stomper asked.

"Shut up, dog." Skyler told him, logging off from that very commlink.

"We leave her 'link here, where we fought, and we just walk with her. No hassle, no strings?" Mark said.

"Exactly." the suit answered.

"He ain't far." Skyler told them, his trace resolved. "It's peer to peer, but he's close. Hundred or two meters away."

"Wouldn't worry about that." Mark said, "Quite reasonable enough of a deal."

Stomper grunted. "So how're we gonna get through the checkpoints when she doesn't have an ID?" he asked.

"We find a coyote, duh." Skyler answered.

Lin Yao did not resist as Mark rifled through her pockets to pull out her commlink. It was a Novatech Airware, similar to the one Athena had.

"Word here's 'skimmer,' kiddo." Athena corrected, "But you're right."

"Just leave it turned on. We'll find it." the suit told them, ending the call.

"Right, now let's get going before this place is swarmed by the fire department." Mark told them.

They found and took a stairwell down to the ground level. Along the way Skyler caught a call from Athena as she made a few calls. First was to Peace Man who told them to bring her to an address in the Lower East Side. Second was to someone who went by the name of Sidewinder who would be able to help guide them across the underground of Manhattan to get there.

"Hope you kids can see underground." Athena told them.

"Yeah, we can see just fine." Skyler replied.

"These things ain't just for looks." Mina added, tapping her goggles.

It was one of the advantages Skyler and Mina had being changelings. Their natural eyes could see just as well in low light conditions as in well lit areas. And if ever there was not even enough light to see by then they could actually see the radiant heat from people and warm objects.

Even if their own natural eyes were not enough, the goggles they wore added other options so they could see, in particular an ultrasound system.

Once they reached the ground floor Athena led them north, towards Aegis Stadium. That apparently was not their destination as she turned off a block short. There Skyler noticed a dwarf gesturing to Athena. He had red hair and beard, and beady hazel eyes.

"Sidewinder send you?" Athena asked.

"Yup. Trip'll cost you twenty-five grand."

Stomper started to sputter. Fortunately Athena was quick to ask, "That UCAS dollars or nuyen?"

"Dollars."

At least Stomper was quick on the math to figure the difference.

"That's pretty steep." Mark said.

"Well, could make it cheaper, but then it's not so easy a trip." the dwarf told them.

"And I suppose you take certified cred only?" Skyler asked.

"Fuck yeah!" the dwarf returned.

"Got one and I'll pay ya five thousand nuyen for the trip."

"Pretty generous of you, kid." Mark said as Skyler accepted a certified credstick from the dwarf.

"Well, it ain't really my money." Skyler told them as he transferred over five thousand nuyen.

"Shit. Which one of us did you rob?" asked Mark.

"Our mark." Skyler answered as he handed the dwarf back his credstick. "She had twelve grand left on her."

"When did… Never mind." Athena said.

"We're good. Alright, ghost your 'links and watch your step." the dwarf told them.

They slipped into another building and went down. It was nothing new for Skyler or Mina, sneaking into a city's abandoned underground.

The Manhattan underground did not seem so dissimilar to Denver, or anywhere else Skyler had been in a city's tunnel system. It was dank, dark, musty, and stank of things Skyler did not want to think about.

"Hope you kids ain't claustrophobic." Mark said as they came to a collapsed section of tunnel. There was almost enough space for Roadblock to barely squeeze through if he crawled.

"Can we go around?" Stomper asked.

"We could, but it's not quite as safe." the dwarf said. "It's not that bad. About thirty meters and you're in the clear. Just go one at a time through here, and I'll go first."

"Easy for you to say." Roadblock muttered.

"This is nothing." Mina said as Roadblock went through ahead of them.

"Yeah, not like we're trying to climb over pit traps like in Bosnia." Skyler added.

"When were you two in Bosnia?" asked Stomper.

"'Bout three weeks ago." Skyler answered as he went next.

"Do we even want to know what you two were doing?" asked Athena.

"No." Mina replied as she came next.

Lin Yao was pleasantly silent after they cleared the collapsed section. Stomper, however, was more vocal on his opinions about crawling through the dirt.

Overall the path was winding and much longer than it would have been if they were on the surface. Ultimately they came up from the basement of a building in a rundown but still livable looking housing complex in the middle of the Lower East Side. No one seemed to pay them any mind as they walked out onto the street, short of their dwarven underground guide.

With their links once again broadcasting where they were, Athena led the way to their meeting with Peace Man. It was a relatively short walk to Tompkins Square park, a nine-square-block park that was a bit overrun with vegetation compared to how it might have been a century ago.

Peace Man was already there, handing over three credsticks to a group of trolls.

One of them, maybe the leader of the troll group, nodded to Skyler and the others before turning to get into the driver's seat of a large black town car. One of his buddies opened the trunk and gestured to Lin Yao. With Roadblock's help she was locked in.

Once that was done Peace Man turned to them and said, "You've done well, kids. Well enough to keep people happy. Have a good one, and you may be hearing from me in the near future." With a wave of his hand their commlinks beeped with their payment.

"Guess now we figure out about getting home." Mina said as Peace Man started walking off.

Going their own way, the trolls in the black town car drove off.

"I'll call Miguel and see what he's got to say." Skyler said.

"Yo, man!" Peace Man called out, heading back towards them, "Almost forgot. Some no-necks from Denver sent me this and asked me to give it to you."

Skyler and Mina both looked back at the ork fixer.

"Their instructions were not to watch it, and guarantee you that you saw it after Lin Yao was on her way to the airport." Peace Man told them.

Another file transfer request came to Skyler's commlink. It looked like a video file, and ready for something viral he accepted it.

The file was clean, and Skyler opened an ARO for him and Mina to watch it with.

The video looked like it was taken from an eye camera, and others could be seen wearing the distinct body armor of Denver's Zone Defense Force. Soldiers could be seen carrying boxes loaded with what appeared to be contraband out of a residence, while two others started stringing up physical police tape.

"Shit!" cussed Stomper, "That's my place!"

As the video played, a neighbor who had came outside to see what was happening was thrown back as a shotgun blast tore open his chest.

"Fuck!" Stomper cried.

The video faded to black with large red letters printing out "Stay out of Denver – G."

"Stay out of Denver – G." Stomper read. "Who's 'G'?"

"Uh, Ghostwalker?" Mina asked.

Skyler felt a little dizzy as his mind processed this information. "Oh shit." he said softly.

"Well, if ya stick 'round I think I can get you some work." Peace Man told them. "Peace!"

And with that he walked off.

"What's going on?" asked Athena.

"I think we're fucked." Mina answered.

"You're a little young to know that." Mark said.

Mina flipped him off.

"Now I gotta call someone." Skyler said.

"Don't forget to include me, too." Mina told him.

Rather than Miguel, like he had thought to call about the trip home, Skyler pulled up Tabby's commcode and called her instead, making sure to encrypt the signal as heavily as he could. He did make sure that Mina was invited into the call, too.

Just before Skyler expected to get routed to a voice mail box Tabby answered. "Hello?" she said softly.

"What's going on?" Skyler asked, not disguising his voice or even introducing himself. From Tabby's hushed voice he figured she already knew who was calling.

"Not a clue, kiddo." Tabby said, "The ZDF hit some places 'cross the Zone all at once. Media's saying it's some kind of sting op that's been going on for a month now."

"Uh, we haven't even been there for over a month." Mina said.

"So I heard. Hitched a ride out for some work." Tabby said, "But somehow you two got caught up in this. I think it's because your crash pad was one of the places hit."

"Glad our shit was out of there months ago." commented Skyler.

"Glad to hear that." Tabby said, sounding quite relieved. "Look, I'll get in touch with Hunter to let her know you two are safe. I know you three are tight and all. Be best if you two didn't call home for a while, too."

"How long's a while?" asked Mina.

"Just how much they got on us?" asked Skyler.

"A year at least, and just your street names and some vague descriptions." Tabby answered. "Shit, I was even asked about you two this morning. Told 'em I hadn't heard from you in months. Also gave 'em some pretty vague descriptions on you two,"

Skyler's heart suddenly started flip-flopping in his chest.

"saying you were married dwarves." Tabby continued.

A wave of relief hit Skyler. Whatever kind of relationship he and Mina had with other fixers, Tabby had just been incredibly generous with the disinformation she said she had given.

"Shit, I think we've talked too long." Tabby said.

Indeed something now felt a little odd about the signal of their conversation.

"Catch ya on the flip side." Skyler said, disconnecting the call.

"What the hell happened?" asked Mina.

"Sounds like you guys ain't going home after all." Mark said.

"Yeah. Where's Stomper?" asked Skyler.

"Took off while you guys called home." Athena said, "Muttering and cussing like a sailor. Think he's determined to go back to Denver."

"Then he's fucked." Skyler said, "And we ain't goin' back."

"Well, if you're staying in New York you might as well come with me, then." Athena said. "At least long enough to get established for work and all."

Skyler looked to Mina, who was already looking back to him.

"_Better if we've got someone who looks like an adult with us._" Skyler silently said.

Saying nothing, Mina nodded.

"Alright." Skyler said. "But first we're gonna need to get some new IDs."


	2. Run 01 : Ready, Set, Gogh!

Run 01 : Ready, Set, Gogh! (based on the mission written by Adam Large; posted 2014/05/08)

After almost two weeks neither Skyler nor Mina fully trusted Athena yet.

So far the blonde elf had proven to be an okay person, with a small place to crash in the Bronx, someone to talk with about some new fake SINs and licenses, and even a tailor for some better clothes for any meets where the dress code was substantially more than "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service."

The two had apparently surprised Athena when it came to taking a day for a fitting for something from the Zoé line. An even bigger surprise for Athena came when Mina did not even flinch at the forty-two thousand, five hundred dollar price tag of her ensemble.

Now when it came to getting new IDs last week, neither of them even flinched when the identity broker asked for an extra ten percent on top of everything when Skyler asked for drivers licenses to be included. A bit surprised as well, the broker did uphold his end of the deal in providing them each a new, red tagged SIN. The real question would be how well it would hold that someone that looked to be twelve years old had a valid driver's license for the state of New York and the isle of Manhattan. If law enforcement was anything like Denver, then there would be no problems.

But they were also already looking out for a place of their own. Of course, the hard part was not knowing many people in New York City, and finding someone who would be willing to rent a crash pad to two people that looked like they belonged in a corp sponsored elementary school, orphanage, or under their parent's watchful eye.

And especially out from under Athena's gaze. So far they had not dared to tell her the truth about their real ages, and this meant that Mina was sharing Athena's bedroom while Skyler slept out on the couch.

"Right kids, time to clean up and dress up!" Athena yelled out from the hallway.

"What?" Skyler called back.

"Work!" Athena said loudly as she stepped into the living room, "Meet's at a swank place called the Marquee Nightclub, at eight. And I don't give a shit how much money you might still have, it won't last forever!"

With a thought Skyler had an ARO open to look up any details on this club. It took little time to find that the place really was an upscale nightclub that had high demands on the dress code. At least a red pass would let them get to the club.

Mina shook her head at Athena's remark. There was no arguing that their money would not last forever, but together she and Skyler had several hundred thousand nuyen and they were not the insanely crazy spending type.

Almost an hour later, after getting cleaned up and dressed up, Athena, Skyler, and Mina were just outside of the Marquee Nightclub, a large club situated on 10th Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets. Compared to the other vehicles in the parking lot across the street, Athena's dark purple Honda Spirit was a cramped piece of crap. Skyler and Mina did not really mind being really close, but squeezing into a subcompact to share a seat was too much.

At least none of them looked like crap.

Skyler wore his new suit from Zoé's Executive Suite line, a black with a touch of dark blue to it at the right angles. It went well with his goggles, which were set to black to match his suit. The only obvious color was his blond hair, which was in reality a wig of synthetic hair.

Mina's dress and shawl from Zoé's Moonsilver line were silver with the barest hint of blue in the evening light. She also wore her goggles, which she managed to get the tech-lines to match the same color as her dress. Her red hair, also really a wig of synthetic hair, was collected and tied in a long French braid that she draped over her right shoulder. And despite Athena saying it was tacky, she wore her choker.

Athena also had a set of high priced clothing also from Zoé. What she wore was tailored after what the nobles of Tir Tairngire used to wear, colored in light blues and greens.

"I'm really surprised at you two." Athena said as they crossed 26th Street to get to the club, "No complaints about getting dressed up or anything."

"Not the first time we went to a club like this for a meet." Mina said. Her arm was looped around Skyler's as they walked.

"Well, Infinity didn't have the dress code this place does," Skyler said, "but the client we met with was the kind you wouldn't dress for less."

"Really? Just who was this client?" Athena asked.

Figuring it would not hurt, Skyler said, "Ehran."

Athena stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait." she said.

Skyler and Mina stopped, turning around together to look back at Athena.

"The two of you," Athena said, pointing from Skyler to Mina and back, "met with Ehran The Scribe, ex-Prince of Tir Tairngire and a whole lot of other titles, for a job?"

"Twice." Mina corrected, holding up her right hand with two fingers extended.

"Can we discuss this later?" Skyler asked, "We don't wanna be late." Together he and Mina turned back around to walk towards the Marquee's front door. In reality Skyler was now more concerned about some MeFeed catching their conversation about Ehran showing up on the matrix. Sure it might last a day at most before just vanishing, but still people remembered things. And people talked, a lot.

Athena was quick to catch up to them. "So, jobs?" she asked.

"Europe, then Asia. Both successes." Skyler said as they walked.

Thankfully that was the end of that topic.

Already waiting there were Roadblock and Mark, and both of them were also dressed quite nicely. Roadblock wore a black Berwick suit and jacket, while Mark wore a snow white suit from the Synergist Business line.

Of course Mark's name was a fake one. Athena had told them that night that she invited them to her place that he went by the name 'Nocturne,' one that he had earned not long after he had awakened. It seemed a little ironic to have such a dark sounding name when his hair was as white as the suit he now wore.

"You know they're old enough to be left home overnight." Nocturne said.

"Yeah, we need to talk about that after the meet." Athena said.

Two orks at the door were obvious bouncers for the club as they all walked in, also wearing suits from the Berwick line of clothing. Skyler could feel their gaze on him and Mina as they walked past, but no one stopped them from entering.

The Marquee was like a gentleman's club at the entrance. Polished wood and brass warmly reflected the light, with a bar and booths available for those waiting to meet up with friends or other people. Powerful music could be heard coming from deeper in the club, with a curtained doorway up a flight of stairs being the only obvious way in.

Just as nicely and simply dressed in a Berwick suit was a man that Skyler figured to be the maitre d'. "Reservation?" he asked them.

"Vincent." Athena replied.

Apparently using personal AR, the maitre d' waved his hand like he was scrolling through lines of text. "Ah." he said, "Right this way, please."

They were led up through the curtain and into the club proper. In the center of the club was an outrageous party, while more booths were strung along the walls.

At one particular booth was a blond haired gentleman dressed in a rich wine red Zoé suit with an incredibly wide-brimmed hat of a matching color. He looked like he was in his early twenties, and was full of energy. Certainly not like most of the Johnsons Skyler had met with in the past.

Close by were five more men in dark suits that seemed to be a little obvious to be anything but the one man's security.

But the man was not alone when they got there. Sitting with him were three gorgeous women, drinking and talking amongst themselves. It looked like they giggled and made their way off to the dance floor, which was hard to tell from just how loud the music was.

Just how loud became apparent when the man with the wide-brimmed hat tried to talk over the music, and failing that placed a small device onto the table. Right away Skyler got an invite ping to join a chat room.

Skyler looked over the node before accepting the invite. It was just a user account he had, but right off everything looked okay. He nodded to the others. Then he switched the tiny trideo camera and microphone in his goggles on, loading up the battery of software that went with the sensors.

Nocturne was the first to slide into the booth, followed by Athena, then Skyler and Mina. Roadblock was left to sit on the end, and it looked like he was fine with this since everything was a tight fit for him.

"I'm sorry about this." the man said once everyone was logged in, "We could go downstairs, but this really is more private. Plus I just can't leave the ladies." He did not speak with his voice, but straight by thought into the chat room node. It was almost an identical kind of setup that Skyler and Mina used to privately talk to each other, but lacked any kind of encryption.

Skyler opted to just listen and hack into the node itself. This was not quite the most unprofessional meeting he had attended, but it was a close second already.

"Mr. Johnson, I presume?" Athena asked.

"Oh? Yes, yes." Mr. Johnson said, "I need some people to pick up a large living target and deliver it to me still alive." Mr. Johnson told them. "I'll pay you each ten thousand nuyen, and two thousand of it up front."

Just as Skyler got through the node's firewall, one of Mr. Johnson's girlfriends of the evening came back with a drink in hand for Mr. Johnson. He ignored the interrupting exchange to more deeply check into how many people were actually subscribed to their chat room's node. Turned out it was just the six of them, along with some minor security measures to try and ensure the privacy of the chat room. From inside it was also easier to tell that the node had an extremely short range, maybe up to ten meters at best.

"Where was I?" Mr. Johnson asked as the woman left.

"Ten thousand nuyen, with two thousand up front." Nocturne said.

"Right, right." Mr. Johnson said. "Now I don't expect this to happen right away. You'll have a week to complete the job."

"Ten thousand total for a large living target." Skyler mused.

"How much did we get paid for that animal job last year?" asked Mina.

"Five thousand," Skyler answered, "but Johnson gave us a van for the job and arranged two border crossings for us. Was a way simple job."

"So you'll be okay with ten thousand?" Mr. Johnson asked, looking hopefully at Skyler.

A waiter stopped at their booth. Opting to not try and make himself be heard over the music, he opened up a public ARO with a list of drinks to choose from.

Everyone declined.

"So, are we good?" Mr. Johnson asked once the waiter left.

"Not sure." Athena said, "I mean, you've got some world class talent here. I think these two might be a little offended at a ten thousand nuyen paycheck."

"World class talent?" Nocturne asked. "You hit the hurlg again before coming here?"

"Hardly." Athena replied.

"She means us." Skyler said, indicating to himself and Mina.

"I don't get it." Mr. Johnson said.

"You kids are world class talent?" Nocturne asked.

"Crap." muttered Mina.

Skyler's head rocked back in frustration. "Fine." he grumbled, hoping his discontent was filtering through the chat. "She and I did a few jobs for a real big shot last month. The kind of big shot that can charter a suborbital flight for a team with a lot of gear, and no questions asked."

The drink that Mr. Johnson did have hit the table with a thunk that was more felt than heard over the blasting music of the club.

"And no, I'm not going to drop names here." Skyler added, looking back at everyone.

"I wasn't told much about you two, other than that I should expect kids for this job." Mr. Johnson said, "But I never expected liars."

"Wild stories won't get you far in this job." Nocturne added.

"Fuck it. Show them." Mina said.

"Yeah, since professionalism's out the window…" Skyler said.

At the speed of thought he navigated the data files stored in the collection of data chips built into his fake cybernetic hand. Finding the trideo image he wanted he uploaded it into the chat node for the others to see.

The image was a composite taken from the micro trideo cameras built into his goggles and Mina's, as well as the cybereyes of another member of the team. It was from the inside the spacious and luxurious passenger seating of a Daimler-Benz Ambassador. Skyler and Mina, in their dressCODE CYBERPIRATE clothes, were clearly visible, along with three others also in street clothes. Sitting more by himself, in a suit with accessories worth more than the outfits of everyone at that table at the Marquee combined, was Ehran The Scribe.

"It's a composite trid, but it ain't chopped or anything else." Skyler told them.

"You just show up like you're ready for work with one of the most powerful elves ever?" Nocturne asked.

"Is it me, or does it look like you guys were just in a fight?" asked Athena.

"He said to come ready for action 'cause we were takin' a suborbital to Asia right after the meet." Skyler told them.

"Yeah, we were in a fight just before that, too." Mina said. "Wasn't it Harlequin who started it?"

"That or some other psychotic elf painted up like a clown." Skyler said.

Mr. Johnson's jaw dropped.

"Hey, we didn't fight him!" Skyler was quick to say. "Harlequin had trouble that night and dumped it on us!"

"You two were involved with Harlequin and Ehran in the same day?" Nocturne asked, staring more at the image than looking at anyone else.

Skyler burned the image from the chat node, causing the ARO to disappear. "Yes, we were!" he said, feeling rather exasperated now. "And if I meet that clown of an elf again I'm gonna tell him that five grand ain't enough for what we did. That fucker owes the two of us a favor."

"Maybe we should go." suggested Mina, dropping from the chat.

"Yeah." agreed Skyler, logging off completely from the node.

It was a rare moment that Skyler was glad he had a child's body. Not only did it make sliding under the table to crawl out from underneath it much easier, but also a bit less embarrassing.

Roadblock stopped the two of them just as they came out from under the table. When Skyler looked at the minotaur, he saw Roadblock indicating back to the others.

Mina waited for him while Skyler connected back to the chat.

"He's gonna stop challenging you guys if you stick around for the job." Athena said. "What's it gonna take for you to agree?"

Before Skyler could say anything he and Mina were pushed up against the table as the dancers out on the floor shifted their way. It might have felt a little nice, especially when he noticed it was the backside of an attractive woman gyrating against him, but Skyler was in no mood for it.

And neither was Mina, who looked ready to do something impetuous right at that moment.

The woman, noticing who she had bumped into, was quick to gesture apologetically. Skyler and Mina were quick to forget it as they got some space back again.

"If it's gonna be an extraction job, then twenty thousand. Otherwise forget it." Skyler said.

Roadblock's eyes went wide.

"Drek. Twelve thousand." Mr. Johnson counter offered.

Eyes still wide, Roadblock's gaze went back to Mr. Johnson.

Mina shook her head. Skyler agreed with her.

"Nineteen thousand." Skyler said.

"Fourteen thousand."

"Eighteen thousand."

"Seventeen-five." Mr. Johnson said, sighing.

"Seventeen thousand, five hundred." Skyler said.

Mina nodded.

Roadblock slipped out of the booth so Skyler and Mina could more easily take their seats again.

"Okay." Mr. Johnson said, passing around five credsticks. In it was the two thousand nuyen retainer Mr. Johnson promised. Skyler moved the money over to another credstick of his right away.

Then an ARO opened above the node, containing an image of what was probably supposed to be a night sky with a crescent moon in various yellows, swirls of light blue, white, and yellow that were maybe stars, and a black spire that made Skyler think of some fantasy wizard's tower keep. In the bottom right looked like a medieval hamlet. This was something Skyler thought was art.

"This is 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh." Mr. Johnson told them. "Now what I want you to take is not the painting, but the transgenic artwork of the same that's in the Museum Of Modern Art."

"You want us to get you a large tank of transgenic fish from the museum?" Athena asked.

"Yes." Mr. Johnson replied. "You can use the number I gave you to call me once you have everything, and we'll arrange the deliver then."

"Right, then let's get going." Athena said.

Skyler and Mina followed close behind Roadblock as they worked their way out of the Marquee.

"Meet up at my place so we can talk." Athena told the others before they went their separate ways. It was necessary since her car could barely fit the three of them.

It was about 22.00 when Nocturne and Roadblock arrived at Athena's home. Skyler, Mina, and Athena were already in more comfortable clothing, while the other two were dressed more for work. Skyler was still wearing his goggles, however.

During the time while waiting for the other two, Skyler had done some online research about Mr. Johnson, the Museum Of Modern Art, and Starry Night. By the time they were all together he already had detailed floor plans for the museum, with the aquarium's location tagged.

He had also found that Mr. Johnson, whose real name was Gary Deltona, was an executive for a corporation called ActOne, a recruitment company and subsidiary of Horizon. Gary Deltona was also a lot older than he looked, really being fifty-five years old despite looking like he had just turned twenty-one. He had apparently been hooked on anything and everything transgenic ever since he had gone through a Leonization treatment.

This information he privately shared with Mina first.

"You might as well take the stuff off." Nocturne said as he dropped down onto Athena's couch.

Noticing that he was talking to Skyler, he said, "What're you talking about?"

"Your arm." Nocturne said, "We already know the arm's fake."

Figuring that Athena did tell the others, Skyler sent the release command to the cybernetic casing that surrounded his left arm.

First the parts covering his shoulder expanded into several pieces, having been held down and tightly together by myomeric wires. This was followed by what wrapped around his upper arm, then elbow, lower arm, and finally his hand, everything spreading a little along invisible seams and having been held tight by more myomeric wires. Once loosened from his skin it was easy to slide his flesh and blood arm out.

"You look good without it." commented Athena while Skyler pulled his shirt back on.

"Pretty fancy, too. Why not just get the real deal?" Nocturne asked.

"Just not into getting stuff shoved into my body." Skyler answered.

"Why not just tell us the truth?" asked Athena. "Not like it's fair you knowing so much about us and we don't know all that much about you."

"Alright." Skyler said, pulling his goggles off.

Roadblock was surprised to see Skyler's blue on blue eyes. Athena and Nocturne hid it better, but he could tell this was not something they were expecting.

"Certainly wasn't expecting that." Athena said.

"Wait, what?" went Darkdstrider. "Been letting 'em crash here over a week and you didn't know?"

Athena shook her head. Skyler had been pretty good about hiding this from her.

"Got a good read on his aura?" Mina asked Athena.

She nodded.

"Guess she means me being a... technomancer." Skyler said.

Roadblock slowly nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, that's it." Athena said.

"Well then..." Nocturne said softly, apparently not quite sure of what to say.

Roadblock sighed.

"Yeah, let's get to the job." Athena said.

Since everyone knew he was a technomancer anyway, Skyler created an ARO of the museum's floor plans for everyone to see. On the fifth floor was a red box marking the location of the Starry Night aquarium.

"You hacked the place already?" Nocturne asked.

"Hardly." scoffed Skyler, "This's public data. I just highlighted the target. It's in their maps for anyone who wants to plan their walk through the museum."

Much of the night was spent making plans. The short of it all was that Athena, Mina, and Skyler would visit the museum and scope the place out while Nocturne and Roadblock saw to arrangements on transporting the large aquarium to potentially any place in New York City.

The following morning they took the metro to Manhattan, getting off the station at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street.

There was a good gathering of people in the museum for a cool Saturday afternoon. They started off with a light lunch in the restaurant on the ground floor before walking the floors to check out what the museum had to offer.

Athena, being an artist herself and nowhere near a tourist to the city, had been to the Museum Of Modern Art more than once. It was even the same place where they had made a simple delivery just two weeks before, though only she had gone inside that day.

But despite being on the job both Skyler and Mina had wanted to make a full day of their trip. Not only was this their first time, but they also argued that just going straight to the Starry Night transgenic artwork alone would rouse suspicions after they had taken it. If they acted like all of the other visitors, then they figured any review of the security recordings of their activities would make investigators think they were like all of the other visitors.

Going through the whole museum had other advantages as well. Like noticing how many security guards walked the floors, the placement of security cameras, and because Mina and Skyler were not the only children there that day, some of the unseen security measures when a pair of rather rambunctious boys accidentally bumped into a piece of artwork on the fourth floor. Nothing was damaged in the least, but Athena did noticed that there were wires helping anchor the artwork into place. It stood to reason that if one piece of art was anchored, then all of them were.

One room on the fifth floor was dedicated to Living Art. Among the first things presented upon entering was a work called "Genesis, The Eight Day," which was actually a terrarium with creatures that were the first organisms with the transplanted green fluorescent protein.

"Oh wow!" Mina went as she hurried over to a display called "Magic Bean."

"What's so great about this?" Skyler asked. Magic bean was a small bean sprout plant. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Too bad you can't see the astral." Athena said. "Its astral form's over a meter tall."

Shaking his head, Skyler moved on to check out other displays. It was when he was checking out a collection of angel fish in a smaller aquarium that he noticed several of the works were labeled as being from the School Of Eduardo Kac, apparently a renowned transgenic artist. The one Skyler was at must have been an early work, he reasoned. It was labeled "Perpendicular Evolution," with the angel fish having a vertical black strip on one side, but a horizontal one on the other. It reminded Skyler of a painting that was nothing more than a white canvas with a red rectangle with a thick black border around it.

Sure, there was beauty in simplicity, but something a second grader could do with a straight edge and felt pen did not deserve millions of nuyen and such adoration, or so Skyler felt.

Moving on, Skyler caught up with the others at Starry Night by Hanso Mach, from the same school Skyler had noted on other pieces on this floor. Now looking at Starry Night, Skyler figured this guy deserved to have his work called art.

The aquarium was a recreation of the painting Gary Deltona had shown them the night before, but in three dimensions and with fish. At one corner was a full model of the village from the painting, and at the other side was the tower. The rest of the space was a kind of puzzle or maze for the fish to swim through, and occasionally they some swam into the right place to fill in part of the artwork. There were twenty large fish and numerous smaller ones swimming about, running in size from large angel fish and goldfish (not the kind you could get three for a nuyen at a pet shop) to schools of thin zebra fish.

"Hey, check this out." Athena said.

She had started up a short trideo, which in part showed all of the fish anesthetized and laid out in the correct place to form the original painting before they were placed in the tank.

After Starry Night they spent more time meandering about and checking out the rest of the artworks before leaving to head back to Athena's place. Apparently Nocturne and Roadblock had managed to make some progress, too.

But what occupied Skyler's mind at the moment, as he washed himself at the bathroom sink, was the chip he had found in his coat pocket. In it was simply an image file of the Horizon logo. At first he wondered how the chip had gotten there in the first place, but then remembering some of the spy tricks in the really old movies he took a more careful look at it.

It was their second night in New York when a strange spirit had come to Mina with a request for the both of them to step outside, specifically without Athena or anyone else knowing. After some discussion they opted to see what the spirit wanted, but had also gotten ready for anything.

The spirit had belonged to a mage of the New York Police Department, Incorporated, and he had an offer for the both of them. Well, more of a sales pitch as far as Skyler was concerned.

The short of it was that all of the corporations in the city and on Manhattan had interests in what was going on. Nothing new as far as Skyler or Mina were concerned with. But what he wanted was to offer was the chance to do little things for the NYPD, keeping things discrete of course, and in return Skyler and Mina would get some benefits. Their only real obligation was to not talk about their little arrangement.

Again, after some discussion between just the two of them they tentatively agreed.

That was not the only person to come forward, either. Several others had done similar, and discrete, proposals. With so many offers they figured that these corporations either did not know or care if particular shadowrunners had several such agreements.

In checking the chip Skyler had no tags to it, no hidden partition of data or secret files. Turned out the message was encrypted and coded into the image itself. It had said, "Assist Ieto Hong without question, and do everything he asks without any setbacks or snafus."

Skyler stared at the casing of his fake cybernetic arm as it sat on the counter while he dried off his chest. He had no idea who this Ieto Hong was, never having met such a person before. He was also a bit worried about what it was that this Hong fellow would ask of him and Mina.

"Um, Skyler?" Mina said softly from the bathroom doorway.

"Yeah?" Skyler asked, turning to look at her.

"A spirit just visited me." Mina said, still speaking softly.

Skyler waved her in, and she closed the door behind her.

"It had a message for me." she told him, speaking a little more normally. "It was from that guy from the NYPD."

"So what'd it say?" Skyler asked.

"They want us to start a fight with security forces tonight, but not NYPD's." Mina told him.

"Just start a fight?" Skyler asked.

"That's what it told me." Mina said, looking down.

Skyler stepped up to her and put his arms around her, feeling how tense she was. She had a thing about wetwork, and they had an agreement about turning down such jobs.

And it was for that reason why Skyler had not mentioned what Ares wanted them to do.

"We just start a fight, right?" Skyler asked. "We can, like, stun 'em 'n run."

"I guess." she said, noticeably relaxing.

"Hey you two!" Athena said loudly, busting in. "What've I told you about being alone together?"

Mina was quick to step back, blushing.

"Not like we were doing anything." Skyler said.

"Hey, believe it or not I was your age once." Athena said. "I know how your hormones are raging and all.

Both Mina and Skyler barely managed to suppress a chuckle.

"Now put your shirt on, Cypher." Athena said, "The others will soon be here, and they're bringing takeout from Bangkok Hut. I don't think they wanna see you half naked while we eat and all."

Mina quietly left with Athena while Skyler grabbed his shirt and slipped it back on.

Soon was an understatement as both human and minotaur were already walking in through the door with sacks in hand. Inside were many boxes of various Chinese styled takeout food. Skyler took one that was a mix of lightly breaded beef, red peppers, and sautéed onions. Mina had herself a kind of sweet-and-sour chicken, which included large chunks of pineapple.

Now if only it were real food, and not a flavored soy substitute. Still, this batch did smell alright.

Everyone claimed a seat, with Skyler and Mina squishing together a little on the couch with Roadblock. After everyone had something to eat, and their choice of sporks or chopsticks, with Mina and Skyler both taking chopsticks, they once again began their planning.

"We managed to get ourselves a Saeder-Krupp LT-21, on loan from a friend." Nocturne said. "We can pick it up on the island so we don't have to worry about a pass."

"And the power pack I texted you about?" asked Athena.

Roadblock gave a 'thumbs up' sign, then went back to scooping up a hefty portion of noodles and mixed vegetables.

"So then that leaves us with the security measures." Athena said.

Skyler took that as his cue to bring up the floor plans of the museum. He also helped himself to a bite of chicken and pineapple from Mina's takeout box.

"Each floor had five security guards wandering about on a regular path." Athena said.

"And there's five more that don't." Skyler added as Mina snagged a piece of beef and red pepper from his box. When Athena looked at him he said, "Hey, I listened in on all their wireless chatter. Wasn't like they bothered to encrypt it or anything."

"Anyway, chances are there won't be that many after hours." Athena said. "On top of that we can expect pressure plates and motion sensors on every bit of artwork there."

"Don't forget the wires." Mina piped up.

"Wires?" Nocturne asked.

"We saw it when some kids bumped into a freestanding sculpture." Athena said, "The base was anchored to the floor to help keep it upright."

Nocturne made a fist and in a snap a matte black blade extended out from between his ring and middle fingers. "I think this should do the trick." he said, retracting the blade.

"I hope so." Athena said.

"So, Cypher, you at least poke the network there?" asked Nocturne.

"Yeah, wasn't anything too special." Skyler said, Your good commlink's about as good."

"Good commlink?"

"Please. You think I don't know that Sony Emperor you openly wear isn't your only 'link?" Skyler asked.

"Can't hide anything from a techno, eh?"

"Any hacker worth half their salt would know. Try slavin' the Sony."

"So how long you think it'll take you to break in? Four, five hours?" Athena asked.

Skyler dropped his head, putting his free hand up to his face.

Mina groaned.

"Did I say something wrong?" Athena asked.

"You forget how fast I hacked your 'link?" Skyler asked back, looking back up at Athena. "Two, three seconds tops."

"We don't need fast and sloppy, kid." Nocturne told him.

"Do it." Mina said.

"Sure." Skyler said, extending his mind between the real and virtual worlds.

"Don't tell me..." Nocturne started to say.

Skyler found the museum's node with ease. Already knowing there was no encryption or data bomb protecting it, he applied his virtual hands like an archaeologist's hammer and chisel to the firewall.

"He's gonna hack in right now." Athena finished.

The firewall gave way on the second blow. Rethreading his stealth form just in case, Skyler slipped in as a hidden administrator to the museum's node.

The interior sculpting of the node was a simplified version of how it looked in the real world. A stylized 'All-Seeing-Eye' represented an analysis program running in the node, forever on the lookout for intruders.

"Hacking? I'm already done." Skyler said as he started blinding the virtual eye to his presence. The effect would last for as long as the program was running, or until Skyler logged off.

As evidence of his work to the others, he replaced the museum's public floor plan with the security plan's layout. It showed the position of each of the guards in real time, each motion sensor, and the status of each maglock on all of the doors. As an added bonus he also created more AROs of the video feeds from every security camera, inside and out.

"Looks like the cameras are tricked for lowlight and thermal." Skyler said as he examined the data feeds.

Roadblock whistled.

"This a live feed?" Nocturne asked.

"Yup." answered Skyler, nodding.

"What're those two things going up and down?" asked Mina.

Skyler pulled up a subscriber's list of the museum's node. "They're Renraku Stormclouds." he told them, an ARO opening in his vision as he did a quick search. "Looks like they've been modified, too. Specs inside say they're armed with neuro-stun grenades."

"So we should bring our gasmasks." Nocturne said.

"Won't do any good. Neuro-stun also absorbs through the skin." Athena told them.

"I can order them around, anyway." Skyler said.

"Right, then. Flag everything important and log off." Athena said, "Don't want you getting spotted by a white hat or spider."

"There's only one, and I've also taken care of the node security so it can't detect me." Skyler told them.

Athena scowled at him.

"Alright, fine." Skyler relented. "But after I make a burn account to get back in with later."

"A what?" Nocturne asked.

"He's going to make an account to log in with later so he doesn't have to hack in." Athena said.

Skyler did at least wipe out the museum's security data with the public info he had up earlier. He still kept watch, though, noting the routes the security guards were taking as he first created an administrator's account in the museum's network.

"So how're we gonna move the fish?" Nocturne asked.

"I sent a text to a street doc I know for a dose of the anesthetic used on the fish before they were put on display." Athena said, "Should help keep them calm while we move the aquarium."

Roadblock, with food in one hand and spork in the other, gestured with his arms wide, then imitated like he was lifting something heavy.

"The tank's seventy-three by ninety-two by twenty centimeters." Athena said, "Makes it roughly a hundred thirty five liters of water, and a hundred thirty five kilos."

"I'd say it's heavier than that." Skyler said as he also worked on hiding his new account, "Gotta count the tank, pumps, filters, and stuff. Figure a hundred fifty kilos in all."

"Better more than less." Nocturne said.

"So, hopefully we don't have to deal with security." Athena said.

"It's pretty tight." Skyler said, focusing mostly on the room with Starry Night in it. "I don't think there'll be enough time."

"What about doors?" Nocturne asked.

"There weren't that many of them." Athena said. "The bookstore, restaurant, and café, and the bathrooms of course, but that's about all."

Skyler knew from the map that there was another door to a stairwell, but that was on the sixth floor and only went up to the roof. It was completely out of their way and probably not worth mentioning about at all.

Then there were the seven icons he found, each one appearing to be VR controls for a gas weapon. Getting a bad feeling about these he left them alone.

"I suppose Cypher's still working in the node," Nocturne said, "so maybe there'll be a chance to take Starry Night from here," he pointed in the ARO to where the aquarium was, "quickly and quietly move it around through here," as he drew a squiggle line around the walls towards the café, "and take the elevator down."

"I was kinda thinking the same." Athena said.

"So we use the café to hide in if we can't do the elevator?" Mina asked.

"What about the fish?" Skyler asked.

"They should be fine if the air filter's turned off for a few minutes." Athena said. "We can hook up the battery in the elevator and take it straight to the ground floor."

"What about the eye ball?" asked Mina.

"Shit, right." cussed Athena.

"Eyeball?" asked Nocturne.

Roadblock closed one eye and looked around with the other, trying to make it looked bugged out.

"There's a watcher patrolling." Athena told them.

"Shit." cussed Nocturne.

Roadblock nodded in understanding.

Skyler did not need to ask to know what kind of trouble that meant. Any magic used to conceal any of them would be obvious to the roaming spirit. It also meant that there was at least one security mage for the museum.

"Hey, I can handle the matrix security in my sleep." Skyler said, "Nothing will show up until after we're done and I log off."

"You can handle it that easily?" Athena asked.

"On one extraction job he did the cameras in a casino while we walked out with the target." Mina said.

"Live edited a dozen or so." Skyler said, "Made three people disappear through live TV."

"And I got a spell that'll do the same." Nocturne said.

Softly Mina said, "Mine just works on the mind."

"Maybe I'll teach you, sometime." Athena offered, "But for now we gotta figure something out."

"I can have a spirit help hide us." Mina said.

"Can you handle one strong enough to hide all of us, itself, and the aquarium?" Athena asked.

"I've bitch slapped more powerful spirits." Mina declared, raiding Skyler's box of beef again.

"Maybe we ought to skip the fish drugs and just do it now." Nocturne suggested.

Checking the time it was almost 20.00, with the sun setting almost half an hour ago.

Roadblock nodded.

"I'm not so sure." Skyler said.

"We were there just today." Mina added.

"Worried about getting recognized?" Nocturne asked.

"A little." Skyler replied.

"You two could support us from the van. Matrix and astral, while we go inside." Nocturne suggested, "That way, if something goes wrong you two might not get caught."

Mina nodded.

"Fine." Skler said.

"Right, let's go ahead and get this over with." Athena said.

"Can we at least wait till I've finished with the account?" Skyler asked.

"Work while you gear up, if you can." suggested Athena.

Skyler did keep working on hiding his account while they got geared up for work, and he was thankful that he could so easily split his attention between the two.

After getting geared up they walked to a metro station and from there to The Pit. There they collected a white Saeder-Krupp LT-21 delivery van. After the van finally accepted Nocturne's security code they all piled in and got ready for a very uncomfortable ride to the Museum Of Modern Art.

When they were close to the museum, Skyler logged in with his hidden account. Again he neutralized the analysis software running in the node and began editing two of the security cameras at the entrance on 54th Street.

After finding someplace to be comfortable, Mina projected herself into the astral. Skyler remained in the van while the others slipped in.

It was nowhere near as good as a tactical program, but Skyler kept a map feed up for the others, marking where the guards were as they moved about their patrol. He remotely unlocked the doors and already had the elevator waiting for them on the ground floor. He also edited the camera footage as they went.

"You know? We still haven't figured out what to do about the guards." Nocturne softly said as the elevator went to the fifth floor.

"I already got an idea." Skyler told them as he poked a motion sensor in a corner room with a virtual hand.

There was no grandiose alarm to go off, but the white hat on duty was immediately there to see what was happening. On top of that he asked one of the roaming security guards to investigate the attached artwork.

When the gap in the patrol came, Athena, Nocturne, and Roadblock all slipped from the elevator. They had to slip through three other rooms first before they got into the one with the living and transgenic artworks.

While the three worked as quickly and quietly as they could, and clipping wires when Skyler told them the security on them had been taken care of, Skyler also started up a game of "where's the poltergeist" with the guards. He was careful to trip the motion sensors of the freestanding artworks, trying to emulate a critter of some kind.

Now if only all of the guards on the fifth floor fell for the wild ghost chase. Maybe Mina or her spirit had something to do with one of the guards that suddenly screamed in pure terror and ran for the escalators.

"Shit's hit the fan." Skyler wirelessly told the others as he subverted the two Stormclouds to his command. It was a simple enough command to use their gas grenades on the museum security guards, along with instructions to ignore all further wireless commands.

While the others made for the elevator down, Skyler moved to the driver's seat of the van. He got the engine started and the back cargo doors open just as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor.

"Alright, let's go!" Athena said when she closed the doors.

Partially not trying to act like they were in a hurry, partly not quite sure of handling something as large and clumsy as a van, Skyler pulled out onto the street and drove off. From within the museum node he made sure there was no video evidence of the team, and burned all trace of his activities. Last was the hidden account he had made, triggering a five second timer to burn itself after he logged off.

"Um, who's driving?" asked Nocturne.

"You're welcome." Skyler said, waving his right hand back to the others.

Mina groaned as she rejoined the real world.

"What the hell happened?" demanded Athena.

"I saw a guard on five suddenly scream and run for it." Skyler said.

"Spirit's orders were to keep everyone hidden." Mina said, "Told me it couldn't hide you from that one guard, so it scared him instead."

Athena groaned.

"Looked like you guys would've been in plain view." Skyler added.

Was it his imagination, or did Athena growl?

"Anyway, where am I taking us?" Skyler asked, stopping the van at a red light on Park Avenue.

"You're not taking us anywhere." Nocturne said from right beside him.

"Fine." Skyler said, getting out of the driver's seat so Nocturne could take control. "Just thought I'd help with the getaway."

""Didn't even know you could drive." Nocturne said as they started moving again.

"If I thought of it I'd've hacked the van so I wouldn't've had to." Skyler said a little softly.

"Turn right when you hit Third." Athena said. "Then left at Thirty-sixth."

"That'll put us awfully close to Stuyvesant." Nocturne said, "And none of us got blue or white passes."

"And I think he knows that." Athena said. There's a parking lot near the tunnel. He just said, 'meet by the tunnel on thirty-sixth."

"What's with this… Stewie-vessant?" asked Mina.

"Stuyvesant's a white collar neighborhood. Lots of monitoring and security." Athena said. "One block has a statue of Zeus with an articulated arm to shoot lasers at trespassers."

A short while later they were at the parking lot. Not long after they got there a gray van and black limo pulled up. Men quickly got out of the vehicles.

Skyler and Mina were a little more cautious getting out of their own van than the others. Carefully he looked over the men from the other two vehicles, noticing Mr. Deltona among them. His facial recognition software pegged the other three as being part of his bodyguards at the club the night before.

One of the men had a large black bag in hand, and was first to the aquarium tank. With help from Roadblock they moved the aquarium to the back of the other van.

Mr. Deltona hovered over the other men as they inspected the fish, acting worse than a fretting mother hen in Skyler's opinion.

After everything seemed okay with the fish, Mr. Deltona turned to them and said, "Much faster than I honestly expected of you. And it seems the fish are none the worse for wear, so here's the payment we agreed upon."

He handed each of them a silver credstick. When Skyler slotted his he found the remaining fifteen thousand, five hundred nuyen on it. This he immediately transferred to another credstick.

"Nice doing business with you." Nocturne said as they piled back into their borrowed van.

After a few kilometers of heading down Third Avenue Roadblock knocked on the back door.

"What is it?" asked Athena.

"Got a shadow." Roadblock said.

Skyler carefully made his way to the back to look through one of the windows in the door. All he saw traffic.

"Hang on. We're gonna take a few turns." warned Nocturne.

It was not too difficult to keep his footing on the first right turn. It was one thing to try and see if you were being followed, but you still needed to try and blend in as long as you could.

One vehicle turned with them. A black sedan with no markings, though it looked like a Mercury Comet.

"Yeah, I think we're being followed." Skyler said.

The display screen of Athena's commlink started flashing weirdly. To make matters more interesting the sedan behind them was flashing its lights at them, and it was synchronized to her flashing commlink.

"Fuck, what do they want?" Athena asked no one in particular.

She apparently put the incoming call on speaker. "Now that you've dropped off Starry Night, I have another job for you. Please pull into the next parking area to discuss." a gentleman's voice said.

The voice sounded familiar to Skyler, and when he ran it through the voice recognition software it came back to the same person who wanted Lin Yao's commlink about two weeks ago.

"If it's work we can at least hear him out." Nocturne said, slowing as he turned into a parking garage on East 16th Street, between Park Avenue and Irving Place.

The black sedan followed them.

Nocturne parked the van, and the sedan slid into another parking space a respectable distance off.

"Drones won't be able to catch us, so everyone ghost your 'links." Athena advised.

Skyler checked the cylinder to his Warhawk before getting out of the van, cussing at himself for not having gotten more ammo when he realized he still had only four shots left, and only a single speed loader to reload with. And it was not like he could skim from the ammo for his Predators, since they used caseless ammo and the revolver used cased.

Four people got out of the sedan. Three were human, and one was an elf, and all wore the stereotypical 'men in black' suits and shades. One of the humans moved and acted a little oddly, though.

And none of them were broadcasting anything about their identities, either.

"_What's with that one guy?_" Skyler silently asked Mina.

After a little bit Mina replied, "_It's a guardian spirit, not a person. 'Bout as strong as what I can call without seriously hurting myself._"

Skyler figured it could pose a problem. But then Mina's spirits of the moment tended to be more over-the-top lately, and she would likely conjure up something that would make that guardian spirit shit its pants, if it could, or if it really wore pants.

One of the men pulled out a white noise generator while the other one and the spirit walked a bit off to the sides. Only the elf stepped up closer to them.

Already Skyler's facial recognition software was processing the elf and the others.

"Don't bother with the legwork. I'm Ieto Hong, head of Manhattan security for Horizon. I will congratulate you on your successful completion of the project, but I have a problem."

"Is it me, or have we met before?" asked Nocturne.

An image ARO popped up from their meeting with Mr. Deltona, marking one of the bodyguards that was there but not at the meet to drop off the aquarium. His voice also matched that of the gentleman's that came over Athena's commlink.

"I think so." Mina said. Skyler was not sure if she was using the same tricks he was, or not.

"Yeah, one of Mr. Deltona's bodyguards at our meeting last night." Skyler said, "And the guy that wanted Lin Yao's commlink." Silently he told Mina, "_And I got a dead drop message that we're supposed to help this guy._"

"Seriously?" asked Nocturne.

Mina scowled at Skyler, clearly pissed off that he did not tell her about this sooner.

Athena shook her head. "Shit. Damned kids."

"I am impressed." Ieto said, "Anyway, your success has given my company a potential problem. Mr. Johnson's, well, Mr. Deltona's tastes distract him from his job. Some of his 'toys' need to be taken away from him in order for him to be more productive. This is where you come in. I want you to go to Mr. Deltona's residence and remove Starry Night. In addition, remove the pieces Perpetual Magic, and Tribble. Starry Night needs to be returned to the museum, these other pieces can be left at any charity center."

Roadblock raised a hand to his mouth and discretely coughed into it.

"That's all well and good, but we're not exactly a charity organization ourselves." Athena said.

"Yes, that I understand." Ieto told them, "Do this and your activities will not be known by authorities, and after completing this job neither Mr. Deltona nor the authorities will find out whom the perpetrators were. Refuse and certain video footage might be seen by the wrong people. And despite the expert skill of your hacker I do have video footage."

Skyler's mind raced as he tried to figure out what he might have missed. One of his running sensor programs was simply a lie detector program, and it was indicating that Ieto was telling the truth.

"Now I thought you got all the cameras." Athena said, the drone in her hair twitching.

"Shit, I thought I did." cussed Skyler.

"Crap, doesn't have to be the museum." Athena said.

"The van or limo at the drop, or someone with a cyber cam in the eye, or even a drone in the area." Skyler said.

"Camera in the eye?" Nocturne asked.

"Reporter crashed a meet once last year." Skyler said, "Corrupted the data beyond recovery and fucked her cyber cam up real good. No, a cybereye's recording's gotta be it."

"With a skilled hacker, so the less wireless the better. Your reputation is well deserved indeed, Cypher." Ieto said. This made Skyler more than a little bit nervous.

"But you still seem a little hesitant." Ieto continued, "I have repossessed a modest place from some undesirables. I can keep it off the books for a while unless we continue to do business. But that can wait for later negotiations."

"_Fine._" Mina silently said.

"Alright," Skyler said, "I ain't speakin' for the others, but she and I are in." If Ieto had any idea on how hard it was to find data on him, Skyler was sure that the elf would take extreme measures to ensure the video would not 'disappear,' provided that this job was important enough.

"Not like we have much of a choice." Athena said.

"Good." Ieto said, "Mr. Deltona has a penthouse on Bethune Street in the West Village. In four hours, Starry Night will be installed at his home. Here's the security code for the private elevator."

Skyler felt a data transmission jump from Ieto's commlink to Athena's. It was unencrypted, so he made himself a copy of the information.

"Perpetual Magic is a mystical looking clock of plastic and bronze surrounding a terrarium. It is hanging on the wall in the study with all of his other trophies. The Tribble is a furry thing in a glass try on a stand with medical equipment housed in that stand." Ieto told them.

"He will not be home until much later. I expect to hear a report of the break-in from my two men working security this evening."

"You got anything to offer in helping with Starry Night?" asked Athena. "You know it'll be a little hard to just walk back into the museum like we're making a delivery."

"You could leave Starry Night in the van just outside on the street." Ieto suggested.

"We can't just abandon the van." Nocturne said.

"A thief with scruples." Ieto said.

"Not like we couldn't _borrow_ another somewhere." Mina said.

"In about four hours?" Athena nodded.

"Yes." Ieto answered as he turned to walk away. "Don't worry about calling me. I'll know."

Trying to find something to do for four hours, after curfew with two minors, seemed like an impossibility. Athena soon suggested a club over in the Lower Eastside that did not ask a lot of questions that they could spend the time at. There they snacked a little, and watched the combat biking league out of Seattle.

It was after one in the morning when they left the club. While the others had resorted to caffeine or something else to keep awake late into the night, Mina had used a spell on herself and Skyler.

Even despite the late hour New York was the kind of place that never truly slept. Mina asked her spirit, which was still hanging around, to help conceal the van while Nocturne drove around the penthouse building once, including the back alleyways.

At the back was a collection of service elevators, so Nocturne backed up the van to them.

"So, which one do we use?" asked Nocturne as they all walked up to the elevators.

"How about the one marked 'G.D.'?" asked Mina.

It almost seemed too obvious. Not only did only one elevator door have Gary Deltona's initials on it, but it was also the only one that looked like it had serious security to it compared to the others.

"Right, so let's see if this code works." Athena said.

"Fuck it." Skyler said as he walked up to the controls. He pulled a fiber optic cable from the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm and plugged it into the connector of the elevator's controls to create a connection so he could hack into the penthouse node. First thing to do was to scan the security system for any encoding or data bombs.

"You're gonna hack it? Why?" asked Nocturne.

"'Cause I don't trust him." Skyler told them as he threaded up his stealth form before forcing himself straight into the node. He gritted his teeth as the resonance burned within his mind a little.

"Kid's got a point." Athena said.

Once Skyler was in, a disturbing build of a Petri-dish filled with odd organisms, he checked the security codes and found a protocol that he was not really surprised was there in the first place. Like he was pulling a card from a machine, Skyler pulled an ARO from the elevator door that had a copy of the passcode protocols and flipped it over to Athena. "Check it out." he said as he added a new administrator's account to the primordial slime that was Gary Deltona's penthouse node.

"What is it?" Nocturne asked.

"Security code protocols for the elevator." Athena said. "The code we were given would let us in, but also would've triggered a message to a commcode too."

Not bothering to hide this account, Skyler disconnected himself from the elevator security and logged directly into Gary Deltona's apartment node. This time he started disarming the analysis software from being able to detect him or his activities.

At Skyler's command the elevator doors opened.

"Yeah, had a feeling." Skyler said as they all stepped into the elevator. "So I hacked in and bypassed it entirely."

With or without proper authority, the elevator could only go to one floor.

"Glad we don't have to walk up fifty flights." commented Athena.

"Glad we don't have to walk down fifty flights with a hundred plus kilo aquarium." Nocturne added.

By the time the service elevator reached the fiftieth floor, Skyler had found and isolated the four only security cameras and prepared them for editing everyone out. Through one of them he saw a security guard in one room. Through a second one that oversaw both elevators figured that the guard was just inside the penthouse doors. "Security?" asked Roadblock as they continued upwards.

"Firefly and I'll handle it." Skyler said.

"_Just how're we gonna do that?_" Mina silently asked.

"_Cast your invisibility spell on me. There's one guard just inside, so I'll peg him with a few SnS rounds._" Skyler told her.

"Okay." Mina said, a little unsure of the plan.

The ding of the elevator reaching the floor might as well have been an autocannon round going off when one is trying to be as quiet as possible. Still, the security guard did not react to it.

"This's your plan?" Athena asked, "Walk in invisible? And what about the security cameras?"

"He'll already have them taken care of." Mina said as Skyler walked out like nothing was wrong. With a twitch of his arms he had his holdouts in hand.

The penthouse doors opened on their own at his command, and while the guard only looked up to see what was going on, he apparently did not see Skyler as he was shot with two suppressed stick-n-shock rounds.

"_Guard's out._" Skyler sent to Mina.

"Bold as hell." Nocturne said softly as everyone else walked up to Skyler.

The penthouse looked lavishly decorated, with artwork framed in what looked like real wood hanging on the walls, and the first room having a pair of real potted plants.

"So which way?" Nocturne softly asked.

"This way." Athena answered, speaking just as softly as the tentacle drone in her hair twitched oddly. She walked straight ahead, ignoring an archway and door that was just off to their left.

The wide hallway turned off to their right, their left now open with large windows facing north to give a spectacular late night view of Manhattan. They passed a few sofas, a few single doors, and even a grand piano before Athena came to another set of double doors.

At Skyler's command those doors opened on their own.

Skyler had already been able to see the trophy room, with two of the four security cameras being set up inside. Seeing it with his own eyes was a little different than through an ARO video feed.

The room was dark except for track lighting arranged to focus on many pieces of art. And all of them were living artworks, too. At the center of the room was a wine red, plush chair on top of a dais. To the chair's right were the described works Perpetual Magic and Tribble, while in front of it was Starry Night.

"Kids get the other two, we'll handle Starry Night." Athena said.

"Eew." Mina went when they got a good look at the Tribble.

"Guess I get the Tribble." Skyler said.

Tribble was not exactly the 'furry thing' that Skyler had expected from Ieto's description. It was like someone had scalped some red furred animal and put the pelt on life support. The pelt was in a tray with an open top, so Skyler figured it was meant to be touched. It felt warm to the touch, and it even sounded like it was purring. This did more to disturb Skyler than sooth as the purring was probably intended to do.

The whole display for Tribble, including the life support equipment, was fifty-by-fifty centimeters square, and about a meter tall.

Finding handholds was not all that easy, nor was moving it once it was unplugged. With a grunt that was maybe louder than it should have been, Skyler was able to lift the complete piece of art that was the Tribble and slowly walk with it.

"What are you doing?" loudly came a voice from the doorway into the trophy room.

"Shit!" cussed Mina quite loudly.

Before Skyler could try and carefully set Tribble back down, turning to see who it was that had came in, he barely saw another security guard crumple to the floor.

"What the hell happened?" asked Nocturne. He and Roadblock were just about ready to start moving Starry Night when it happened.

"I… I stunned him." Mina said, awkwardly holding Perpetual Magic to her chest.

Perpetual Magic was a rather large piece of artwork, being a round tube with a dozen spokes to a terrarium at the center, about half a meter in diameter. What Skyler figured to be something called glomoss, a dual-natured moss that physically glowed when it sensed a disturbance in the astral plane, was in the terrarium. It also looked like there were many insects crawling about inside, and they must have been dual-natured as well as the moss glowed more brightly the more of them that crawled on it. The rest of it looked like a solar sensor that powered an archaic looking clock.

"Why didn't you do something about that one, hot shot?" asked Athena.

"Maybe 'cause we walked past a room with a closed door that he was in that didn't have a camera?" Skyler asked back. "Can we just get these to the lift? It's fuckin' heavy."

Feeling a little less concerned about trying to be quiet they continued on with moving the artwork. Once they were in the elevator Skyler was relieved to set Tribble back down. His arms were already feeling tired and like they were another meter longer.

Once they reached the ground floor Nocturne and Roadblock moved Starry Night out first.

"Who the hell'd be making a delivery at this hour?" Athena asked.

"Looks like janitorial." Nocturne said, glancing at the side of another van that was parked beside the one they were borrowing.

Skyler chuckled, scanning for the new van's node while standing in the elevator's doorway to hold it open.

"What's so funny?" Nocturne asked.

"Too easy." Athena said.

The Bulldog Step-van may have been a bit too easy to hack into, but it was also perfect.

"I own it." Skyler told them as he remotely started up the engine. With a thought the back door slid up.

"Be best if we split up, too." Nocturne said.

"Me and the kids'll take Starry Night back while you to do whatever with the other two." Athena said.

"Easy enough here." Nocturne said as he and Roadblock slid Starry Night into the back of the Bulldog. They then took Perpetual Magic and Tribble from Mina and Skyler and loaded it up into their own Hermes van.

The drive back to the Museum Of Modern Art was smooth and easy, with most of it being on the ring road up the west side of the island, all the way up to 54th Street. Athena rode in the driver's seat while Skyler actually commanded the van on where to go. Once at the museum they left the van parked and unlocked. Skyler was careful to leave the van where they could get out and still not be seen by the cameras that monitored the building.

Just as they reached the metro station on 53rd Street, Athena sent off an anonymous text to the museum about the missing Starry Night being just outside to be claimed.

On the metro back to Athena's place in the Bronx they received a message from Nocturne that the two items had been taken care of, and their borrowed van returned as well.

That Sunday was a quiet day, with no contact with Ieto Hong or Gary Deltona. Their theft of Starry Night did not make the morning news feeds, or even the evening news. Athena admitted to being a bit bummed out about there being nothing in the news, and it looked like she felt worse than she admitted.

It was late that evening when Mina told Skyler that she got a spirit message by the same magician. This time there were instructions to meet him in person at a specific address.

Athena was fully submerged in VR doing something when they snuck out.

The spot Mina had been told they were told to meet up at was underneath the Bronx side of the Third Avenue Bridge. Expecting the worst, Mina told Skyler that she had called up Baradiel just in case.

Skyler was also ready on his own front, with his tank sprite hiding in his commlink.

Standing casually in the shadows of the bridge's concrete supports was an ork. He had ruddy skin, a bulbous nose, and relatively short tusks. What could be seen of his dark, curly hair was covered by a bowler hat that looked to have seen better days. He wore a similarly worn trench coat of a light tan material.

Scanning for what he could, Skyler could feel no wireless or networking devices in the immediate vicinity. Still he kept his hand close to his Warhawk, just in case.

"You the guy?" Mina softly asked as they got closer.

"Beat it, kid." the ork told them, barely looking at either of them.

"Well fuck you, then." Mina sharply said, and not quite as softly spoken. "First you send a spirit to make us an offer, then you send it again with what you want, and after we did it and ask us to come here you tell us to beat it?"

The ork glared at Mina.

"Might as well save your spirits and not ask us to do anything if you're gonna be a real dick 'bout it." Skyler added.

The ork shifted his gaze to Skyler, then back to Mina. "You're Firefly?" he asked.

Mina's shoulders slumped. "Awe man, not again!" she said, rolling her head.

"You really have no idea how much we hate that shit." Skyler said.

"Never said anything about you being kids." the ork said.

"Well, we are." Skyler replied.

"Gonna try to arrest us for curfew?" Mina asked.

Pulling his hands out of his pockets, Skyler saw the ork slip two fingers into a grip of some kind, and in pulling them apart revealed a garrote. He took a step back and grabbed his Warhawk, but did not draw it.

"Not quite what we expected at all." the ork said, bringing his hands back together, with the garrote retracting automatically. "But you two simply did what we asked."

The ork pulled a second garrote out of his pocket as he slowly walked up to them. With one in each hand he held them out for the two to take.

Keeping his hand on his Warhawk, Skyler took one of the offered weapons. Cautiously Mina took the other.

"Monofilament wire, so be careful." the ork told them as he turned walked off.

"_Guess that's it._" Skyler silently said.

"_Hope he's not such an ass the next time._" Mina added as they turned to walk back to the metro station they had just come from.

Not too keen on having such a weapon in any pocket, Skyler spent the next two days working on their commlinks to hide the monofilament garrotes in. Hopefully weapon scanners would not detect them, with the wire hiding in a tight coil close to the transceiver antenna.

Mina originally was not so keen on keeping them. Skyler had managed to convince her that they need not be used on people, and could be used to cut through other things, like door handles, some locks, and the bars to prison doors.

Skyler also hoped neither of them would have to use their garrotes on people.

"Time to clean up!" Athena called out.

Skyler had just secured the casing on Mina's commlink after hiding her garrote in it.

"Just got a text from Ieto." Athena continued, "Gave me an address for that place he said."

"Yeah, sure. We'll come to check it out." Skyler said.

Again they took Athena's compact car, and Skyler and Mina were squished together uncomfortably in the passenger seat.

The late evening drive was relatively slow going, driving from deep within the Bronx, and skirting Manhattan to go into Queens. Their final stop was about two and a half kilometers south of La Guardia International Airport.

The neighborhood itself looked relatively nice, clean, and even felt vibrant with numerous trees growing in some places. In some ways it reminded Skyler of the neighborhood his sister's friend lived in back in Denver, though the buildings in the area looked like they had seen better days about fifty years ago.

Ieto was already there, waiting for them as Athena drove down the one-way street. She parked behind a nice looking black BMW sedan with blacked out windows, the car Ieto was standing next to.

"Glad you could make it." Ieto told them as they got out of Athena's cramped car.

"This the place?" Athena asked, looking up at one of many brownstone homes that ran along both sides of the street.

It was a three floor building, with the bottom floor having a large garage door beside a stairway that led up to a small porch and the building's actual front door. The second and third floors had a large bay window that extended a little over the garage door itself. Curtains were drawn so they could not see inside.

Beside the driveway, and technically in the front yard of the neighbor to the left, was a large maple tree, its fading shadow stretching across the street as the sun set behind the row of homes. Some of its limbs stretched over the driveway, and Skyler could imagine the small front yard having pleasant shade during a hot summer day.

"It is." Ieto answered, "It's been cleaned up a bit inside already, and there's room enough for everyone, if you want."

Skyler noticed Ieto pass off a set of keys to Athena. "Have a good evening." he said as he got into the BMW's back seat. Quietly, apparently running on an electric motor, the BMW pulled out and drove away.

"Well, let's take a look." Athena suggested.

Skyler followed Athena up the front steps, carefully stepping through the door. Not taking anything to chance Skyler drew one of his Predators, an EX-explosive round loading into the chamber.

The first room they saw was a living room, and it was a bit of a mess. Mr. Hong had certainly been honest about repossessing it from some undesirable people. There was still a smell of ammonia still in the air, and what was otherwise clean carpet was peppered with white spots. There was a couch and two somewhat small chairs, but it was relatively sparse. A fireplace sat in the far corner.

Further back and to the right, and quite open to the living room, was apparently a dining room. A round table of synthwood and four mismatched chairs were about all that filled this room. To the left was a set of stairs that led up and down.

"You two go up, and I'll go down." Athena said.

Before going up the stairs Skyler saw the home's kitchen, with some antique appliances next to a soy processing unit.

Skyler led the way as he and Mina slowly crept up the stairs. The top landing was an open hallway going off to their left and right. He gestured with his Predator for Mina to go right while he went to the left.

There was a curtain door to a cubby that held a washer and dryer, and only a single door straight ahead of him. As quietly as he could he pushed the door open.

It was a rather large, if sparsely filled, bedroom. A large window took up about half of the far wall, with a queen sized bed pushed up to the wall on his right. Two more doors were on his left, an empty walk-in closet and a bathroom that looked like had seen better days.

"All clear!" Skyler yelled out.

"Clear here, too!" Mina added. "_You gotta see this!_" she silently and excitedly added.

Mina had discovered the master bedroom. To his left and right as he walked in were to walk-in closets, while straight ahead was a larger bedroom with a cathedral ceiling. Pressed to the wall on his right was a king sized bed, while to his left was a space that looked like had been used as a small office, with a door that went outside to a small balcony. Looking around he noticed he had passed a bathroom door, and in looking inside saw a dedicated shower, bathtub, toilet, and his & hers sinks.

"Isn't it great?" asked Mina. It looked like she was in love with the place, or at least the whole getup for the master bedroom. The only downside Skyler could find was the splattering of white spots on the otherwise emerald green carpeting, and the still pervasive smell of ammonia.

"Looks like it's just us." Athena said as she walked in. "Wow, nice room."

"There's another back there." Skyler said.

"Good, she can have that one." Mina declared.

"I don't care who's name's gonna be on the lease, but we're taking this room." Mina said, indicating to herself and Skyler.

"Oh no we don't." Athena said sternly. "Us girls will take this room, and Cypher can take either the other upstairs or the downstairs bedroom."

Skyler half sighed, half groaned.

"You think I'm gonna let you two tweens sleep together, doing things that'll probably ruin your lives?" Athena asked.

"_Fuck it, let's tell her._" Mina silently said.

"_Feeling the same way._" Skyler replied. "Just how old are you?" he asked Athena, "And don't give me shit about how it's rude to ask."

"I'll be twenty-two this August. Why?"

"Told ya she's younger than you." Mina said.

Skyler holstered his Predator. "Technically Firefly's seventeen and I'm twenty-four." he said, taking off his goggles so he could look Athena straight in the eye.

"No." Athena said, her expression seeming to balance between skepticism and curiosity at the same time, "No way. You're both too short and small. Like she's about ten or eleven, and you're twelve."

"I was born March of twenty-forty-eight," Skyler said, "I was thirteen when I saw the news about the D.C. rift and Ghostwalker tearing up Denver Christmas of twenty-sixty-one. I was scared shitless when I watched the live broadcast of that dragon tear apart the Azzie pyramid and pull out a greater blood spirit like it was the biggest booger ever. And I was almost nineteen when I emerged, and it scared the shit out of me."

"What the hell?" Athena said, looking like she was about to faint.

Quickly Mina and Skyler were at her side to help her to the bed to sit down.

"Well… We're both changelings." Mina told her. She sat down next to Athena, saying, "I SURGEd when I was little, and it changed my eyes, how I can see. But it also did something to me, so I stopped growing up."

"And I grew up." Skyler added, "High school in Seattle and all. Skipped town to Denver after Brackhaven got elected and wanted to have all technomancers registered like they were criminals. I SURGEd a few years ago, and my body regressed to this."

Athena looked back and forth between the two of them. It appeared she was still trying to figure if they were the world's greatest liars or actually telling her the honest truth.

"It's called neoteny." Skyler said, "Look it up. There's two forms."

After maybe half a minute of silence, neither saying a word while Athena's eyes darted back and forth, reading unseen AROs. "My God." Athena said softly, looking back up at the two of them.

"We've been really close for almost a year now." Mina said, moving to stand close to Skyler, and to slip an arm around his waist.

Skyler reciprocated with his fake cybernetic arm. "Like living together, sharing a bed close." he added.

"And here I thought you two were just… precocious." Athena said. "Alright, I'll ease up a bit on you two. But if I find you're lying…"

"You won't." Skyler said with confidence.

"Right." Athena said, "Well, since we've got the space I'll drop a line to Nocturne and Roadblock. Maybe they can share the downstairs bedroom."

She was still a little shaky, but Athena was able to stand on her own before she slowly walked out of the room.

Mina's face brightened immensely. She did not hesitate to hug Skyler tightly, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity they kissed.


	3. Run 02 : Block War

Run 02 : Block War (based on the mission written by Eric Boivin & Adam Large; posted 2014/05/22)

It had been over a week now at the brownstone in Queens, and so far it had been a good week. On top of that they found that it was located well within walking distance of two metro stations that serviced four different metro lines that went into Manhattan.

Athena did not argue while Skyler and Mina scrutinized the place for bugs, enchantments, or anything else that could be detrimental to them. Skyler even spent a day going through the central home node for any code, viruses, agents, and more. Ieto Hong may have been on the level with them so far, but that did not really mean anything so they were not taking chances.

Thankfully they found nothing, which meant there was either nothing to find, or something was hidden well beyond their abilities to find. Even despite that they both knew they were not the best, they did at least feel better knowing that they at least tried and found nothing.

Though Athena did nothing on her part about making sure the home was bugged or not, apparently she did take their concerns and findings seriously. It was not until after the two had done their checks that they packed up what they had at her small place in the Bronx and relocated to Queens.

The cleanup team Ieto Hong had for the place had been a bit more considerate than anyone expected, too. That, or the previous tenants never used the SPU in the kitchen since it was fully stocked with soy and an intense array of flavor packets.

The new sleeping arrangements for the five of them were a bit of a surprise to Nocturne and Roadblock. Once learning that there were three bedrooms available, Nocturne had figured that he and Skyler would be sharing a room the, girls shared another, and Roadblock got one (the basement bedroom) to himself. He had been quite vocal and against Skyler and Mina sharing a room, and while Skyler and Mina had tried convincing him they had already been sharing a bed for several months now, it was actually Athena's threat of sharing a room with Roadblock in the basement, or finding his own place.

Nocturne chose to live elsewhere.

Another surprise came in the form of a late night visitor. Using the neighbor's tree, a black cat managed to get onto the upper porch. It was like the cat knew the place like it was home, so Skyler and Mina decided to let him stay, but only so far as their personal area of the brownstone. He seemed quite content to share the bed with them at night.

After Roadblock had moved in, Skyler decided to discreetly contact his sister in Denver to have some of their stuff shipped to them in New York. It was a hell of a sister that would carefully pack, hermetically seal, and ship several hundred rounds of ammunition, two laser pistols, his three iBall drones he had used for home security, and the collection of knickknacks and other oddities that made up Mina's lodge, and then ship it all halfway across the continent.

It was last Friday when the package had finally arrived, taking longer than normal since Sarah had not sent it by conventional means. At least they had received it, with all of the contents secured. Part of him also wished in a small way that at least one of his Doberman drones could have also been sent. It was also the first package they had received that was actually expected.

There was no work for them anyway, and as the first week went by they all worked out the story to use with the neighbors. A motley crew of four people, two of them that looked like children, was sure to draw attention of any soccer moms that lived on the street.

And a story they did need when one mom had invited Skyler and Mina over just yesterday, Saturday, for a play date with her three children. It was oddly quite easy for the two to fall back into their roles of children again, just like when they were still in Denver, staying with Sarah and her roommate in a classier neighborhood than where they were now. Even his old lies about 'progressive' parents tattooing his eyes held up to explain the unnatural blue-on-blue color of his eyes (which some of the kids thought was super wiz). At least this time they did not have to pose as brother and sister.

But Sunday evening came with work, with Athena receiving a text to meet with a fixer by the name of Klubbs about some work. She also told them that they would meet up with Nocturne at a metro stop along the way.

When Skyler did some research on the name he found that Klubbs worked with his daughter, and actually advertised their services. He figured the jobs Klubbs offered were substantially lower key than some of his past jobs.

It was close to 18.30 when they exited the metro at Chambers Street in Manhattan. Skyler and Mina both had to stop for a moment to look up at the one structure that gave this little stretch of the island its name: The Towers. Sunset was more than an hour away, but even the orange glow of the sun itself was not enough to give color to the trio of black towers that stretched so high up that your neck would ache if you tried to see its pinnacle.

But they did not dilly around too long, especially when the meet was in a conference room at the Corson Place Hotel, which was right where the metro station was.

The conference room was far from immaculate, but at least it was not a noisy night club packed to the gills with patrons. The center of the room was dominated by a large, oval shaped table, along with a holoprojector, dry erase board, and a white-noise generator.

At the head of the table was a young, female, Hispanic dwarf. He figured this was Cheli, based on the advertisements Skyler had found. She sat in the most serious pose she could manage, wearing a pink dress with her long brown hair drawn into two simple pigtails that were draped over her shoulders. Still, she came off as more professional than Gary Deltona did.

"My daddy will be here soon. Please wait." she told them as they filed into the room.

Having already been told this was a father/daughter fixer team, no one acted surprised or even questioned that Cheli was there. Skyler was glad of this, too, as it would have been rather hypocritical to question a girl fixer when they worked with a boy hacker and girl magician themselves.

Well, maybe if Athena said something, but then she was the only other person in the room that knew the truth about Skyler and Mina.

They actually did not have to wait long. Another dwarf, also Hispanic, came in. He had short cropped hair and beard, and was carrying two sacks of takeout food. He placed the sacks on the table and pulled out a box of Chinese food and handed it to the girl.

Skyler's facial recognition software popped up a high chance of the two being related.

"Thank you all for coming. Mongolian beef anyone? I have some extra." he said, pulling a commlink out from an inner vest pocket.

No one accepted.

"Klubbs?" Athena asked.

"Yup." the dwarf nodded, "I have a job to offer you, one of corporate espionage. Injuries should be avoided, as should major damage. The goal is to lightly paralyze the company, not to write them off the map."

The girl sat quietly, eating what looked like orange chicken with rice.

"You'll each be paid seventy-five hundred nuyen for a successful job, with a thousand up front." Klubbs told them.

"Corporate espionage, avoid injuries, and just lightly paralyze a company? Well, that'll be different." Skyler said.

"What do you mean by that?" Nocturne asked.

"Sounds a bit like something I did last year, that's all." Skyler said. "Just that one we were supposed to severely paralyze instead."

"And who was that?" Athena asked.

"Some little company called Rocky Mountain Dynamics." Skyler answered. "Managed to stall them out entirely."

"Hey, heard about that one." Klubbs said. "Raiding and robbing, though, but not quite what we're looking for."

"Never heard about their break room?" Skyler asked. "Crap."

"I did." Cheli said, "A little, anyway. It was totally trashed."

"Yeah, I did that one." Skyler said, though that was about as much as he could remember. Sarah had told him that he had raided a six pack of beer while trashing RMD's cafeteria, offices, and more.

"Well then, maybe you'll do good in this one after all." Klubbs said.

"Not gonna try asking for more, are you?" Nocturne asked.

"That one paid more to do more, so why?" Skyler asked back. This job was not sounding like one that deserved more money for the work.

"I'm fine with seventy-five." Athena said.

"Alright then." Klubbs said, forwarding them their retainer. "Ignensys is the target. It's a company in downtown Manhattan, in the Hanover Square Building between Pine and Wall streets, that has been a thorn in my client's side." He held up his commlink, reading, "They have grievously insulted us—my client—with their latest activity."

"So just exactly what are you asking us to do?" Nocturne asked.

"Pranks and jokes." Klubbs said, "Ever been part of a fraternity?"

"Sounds childish."

"_Guess not._" Skyler silently said.

"Well, you've got some experienced hands with you already." commented Klubbs.

Skyler could not help but grin.

"So, got any suggestions?" Nocturne asked.

"Well, you're limited to hitting Ignensys only." Klubbs said, "And here's the blueprints for the place. They're on the twenty-second floor."

Everyone was forwarded a data file. It was nothing more than the floor plan.

"Mess with the workstations, take a wheel from all of their chairs, plug toilets so they'll overflow." Skyler rattled off.

"Ink the soap dispensers." Mina added.

"Now you're getting it." Klubbs said.

On the dry erase board Cheli had started writing down things that they said. "A lot of good ideas, but no one should suspect something." she said.

"Makes things a little more challenging." Nocturne said.

"Figured you weren't one for jokes." Skyler said.

"Had a girl in my school put a laxative in the teacher's water cooler." Mina said. "Almost got out of a test, but they found out too soon."

"And then the stopped up toilets… You two are turning out to be little devils." commented Athena.

"And sprinklers." Roadblock said.

Skyler's mind felt like it was just electrified. "Rig them to go off at a specific time, hopefully after the toilet's flooded…"

"Add some foamy stuff, like what we saw the cops use on that trid last week…" Mina added.

Klubbs started laughing.

"You just had to say it, didn't you Roadblock?" asked Athena.

The minotaur simply shrugged, trying to look innocent.

"How about TP'ing offices?" asked Nocturne.

"So old fashioned." Skyler said.

"But so classic." added Athena, "I say we do it too."

"Sounds great." Cheli said, "This turns out good we could hire you on again on this gravy train of pranks."

"You mean there'd be more?" asked Athena.

Nocturne groaned.

"_I don't care. Sounds way too fun._" Mina silently told Skyler.

"_Good for a break from things_."

"Who knows, but if it's a while it'll mean good pay." Klubbs told them. "Especially if Ignensys wants to retaliate"

The rest of that evening was spent getting materials for their jokes. Athena, Skyler, and Mina all hit up a variety of office supply and department stores for various printer inks. Roadblock and Nocturne went a different route to get what they needed for a water activated foam, with a list of ingredients that Athena gave them

The next morning was spent in preparation. Athena went ahead to scout out the office itself. Using a threaded skillsoft Skyler spent a few hours working up the powdery concoction that would expand into a lot of foam when mixed with water. Even better was that an additive added a thirty second delay in the mix before the foamy action actually happened. Mina thought this would be hilarious.

Skyler thought so too, especially when that afternoon he received a cryptic message from another group they had tentatively agreed to do little things for. It had been from Saeder-Krupp, with the simple request to do no violence on anybody this week.

Nocturne was also out for much of the day, getting other little things that they figured would be necessary to pull of the series of jokes. There apparently was some communication between him and Athena as he came home that evening with a duffel bag for everyone.

When Athena got back they all had dinner and worked out how they would get into Ignensys. She had a much better trid image of the office space to work with than the blueprints Klubbs had provided them. All she really lacked was the details of the men's restroom.

The duffel bags Nocturne had gotten were indeed Athena's suggestion. A few floors below Ignensys was a twenty-four hour gym, one of several round-the-clock businesses in the building, and the idea was that the five of them would be able to just walk on past security like they were going to the gym. To help on this illusion Skyler left most of his handguns and sword behind, carrying only his two Morrissey Élan holdouts.

After a short walk to the metro, a transfer at Grand Central, they were down at the southern tip of Manhattan. The Wall Street station at the intersection of Pine and William streets was part of the Hanover Building that Ignensys was housed in. Due to the design of the building there was no direct way in, so they had to walk outside of the metro station just to get back inside again.

Nocturne and Roadblock went ahead first, with the others following behind a little bit after. Skyler certainly had no problem with this, as it would have looked rather odd to him if the five of them all came in as one group.

Despite the late hour they were not the only ones coming or going from the building. Though not busy or crowded as would be expected during the daytime, the lobby was far from empty. Getting past the security guards was a lot easier than Skyler expected.

"Don't worry about getting in." Athena softly told him as they waited for the elevator to arrive. "I got myself in earlier today, so I've got us covered."

"Okay." Skyler said as the elevator dinged. He knew her gear was not as good as what he could do with his own mind, or even if he tried using the commlink concealed in the forearm of his fake cybernetic arm, but if she was capable of doing the job he would let her.

Of course their elevator ride up meant skipping the gym floor and going to the one for the Ignensys office. Athena had the office door unlocked for them just as they got there.

The lights were off over the over two dozen cubicles of the office. Skyler noticed too late as they walked in that someone was still there. He and the others were quick to hide themselves in a row of cubicles.

"Shit." hissed Athena, "There's someone here."

"How about invisibility magic?" asked Nocturne.

"I think that's asking a lot." Mina said.

Whoever it was did not appear to have noticed that anyone came into the office. There were no voices of alarm or questions of who was there.

"Let me take a look." Skyler said, pulling out one of his fly-spies and waking it up with a mental tap.

In the low light it was already hard to see the tiny drone as it took flight. He hoped that whoever was inside the office would be too distracted to notice.

The tiny mechanical bug did not have far to fly to reach the one cubicle that was lit up by a display screen. He was human, and his fingers tapped like mad on an actual keyboard. Through the drone's microphone Skyler could hear fractal phase music, something like technosynth but only more chaotic, playing.

"Well hotshot?" asked Athena.

"Looks like he's working. Got music playing plenty loud." Skyler said. "Gimme a sec and I'll see what he's doin'."

It was actually two seconds for him to hack the man's commlink. It was an off the shelf Novatech Airware running an older Iris Orb operating system, and through it Skyler could now see everything he did.

"Working my ass." Skyler said as he saw a fantasy game AR environment. "Steve's playing Final Fantasy Crystal Stars online, got music by Synaptic playin', and he's partied up with another player."

"Steve?" Nocturne asked.

"The wageslave."

"Seriously?" asked Athena.

Trying to focus more on the matrix, Skyler slid more of his own perceptions of the world to center on Steve's. "I gotta go full dive for this." he said, slumping down onto the floor before letting his mind sink fully into the matrix.

Completely within VR, Skyler could only hear what Steve heard, and noticed that the resolution was cranked to the max for the environment, and anything of the real world beyond half a meter was completely obscured. Virtual pets played with each other around him, oblivious to the game where Steve and his partner had just managed to kill a mid-level fiend. With both game music and sound, and Synaptic's chaotic rhythms blaring, Skyler wondered just how much Steve could hear.

To test Steve's hearing, Skyler ordered his fly-spy to buzz past one ear like an annoying mosquito. After two zips and no reaction, he then had it slowly move in, hovering as close as it could get without touching Steve.

Through an ARO to see what the drone saw, Skyler got a very good and unaltered look at Steve's right ear, and the ear bud that was in it.

Feeling satisfied that Steve was quite oblivious to the outside world, Skyler withdrew his mind back to the real world, calling back his fly-spy as he went. However, he kept his connection to Steve's commlink so he could see when Steve would finally pack it up and go home.

"Well?" asked Athena.

Skyler accepted Mina's offered hand up. With a thought he had the fly-spy buzz past Nocturne's ear.

Nocturne waved his hand, but was completely off in hitting the tiny drone. "What was that for?" he asked.

"This was buzzing in his ear so close I could see the Sony ear bud in it." Skyler said, collecting and pocketing his tiny drone. "Steve didn't notice it, and I couldn't hear it on his side."

"So if we're careful he'll be completely oblivious to what we do?"

"As long as we're more than half a meter away, yeah."

And careful they did their best to be as they quietly walked about the office. Athena and Mina went straight for the women's bathroom while the others went into the men's.

With Roadblock's help Skyler was lifted up into the ceiling above the office. It was tricky work since it was a drop ceiling, and Skyler was limited to the actual support beams to move by. Still he was able to get to the main water line rather easily since the building's architect had the sprinkler feed right close to the restrooms.

Under normal circumstances it was probably an easy job to attach a new plumbing fixture to an existing line. Skyler lacked the space to move as freely as he liked, but after about half an hour of work had managed to get the first canister of foam mixture added to the sprinklers.

Once they were done in the ladies room, Mina joined him up inside the ceiling. They worked together with the rest of the foam canisters, with an air elemental to help in bringing them a canister when they were ready.

At one point Mina got a spirit message from that guy at NYPD Inc., with the simple request to get the cops involved with whatever they were doing. They both figured that the cops would be involved because the fire department was sure to be involved once the sprinklers went off. The sprinklers were set to start at precisely 10.00 EDT, with the foam canisters waiting four and a half minutes before releasing their contents.

And all the while Steve 'worked' at his Final Fantasy game, completely oblivious to what was happening around him.

Once everything was set they actually went down to the gym itself. Athena, Mina, and Skyler opted to just work up a good sweat in a steam room to help the illusion that they actually had been working out, while Roadblock and Nocturne opted to actually stay and do some exercising of their own.

After a quick shower the three were on their way back down to the lobby. The security guards did not even seem to notice or care as they walked by.

The next morning was one to sleep in, especially when Skyler did not want to ruin the mood of cuddling with Mina in bed.

The call came that afternoon to meet again at the Corson Place Hotel to collect their payment. When they got there they found it was in a different conference room, and a wholly different situation.

Klubbs was seated between two rather well dressed men, one older and one younger. The older man wore a neutral gray suit while the younger wore a wine red suit. Even without the facial recognition software Skyler recognized Gary Deltona.

Behind the three were half a dozen bodyguards.

Off behind a desk was Cheli, with wired buds stuck in her ears and something of greater interest on her commlink than the meet on hand.

"Please, everyone have a seat." the older gentleman said.

"So, Mr. Johnson? Mr. Johnson?" Athena asked as she pulled up a chair to sit down.

Skyler and Mina grabbed chairs of their own, as did Roadblock. Only Nocturne chose to remain standing.

"Yes." the older Mr. Johnson said. "We were just discussing with Klubbs here about the childish nature of the job since it's really beneath a fixer. Such things could devastate both corporations."

"Yes, it's gone on quite long enough." Gary Deltona added.

"So you two've been at this for quite some time?" Nocturne asked.

"Years." Gary said.

"Decades." Old Mr. Johnson corrected.

"Drek, has it been that long?"

"It started back in thirty-eight." Old Mr. Johnson said. "Just after we graduated from NYU."

"Really sorry to butt in, but if we could get to the point before all the reminiscing?" Athena asked.

"Yes, quite right." Old Mr. Johnson said, "Time to truly put an end to this."

"Yes, a truce to end this before things really do get out of hand." Young Mr. Johnson added. "And to help ensure this, I'll…"

"We'll…" Old Mr. Johnson interjected.

"We will," Young Mr. Johnson corrected, "will pay you what Klubbs agreed to pay you, and he can keep his money for himself."

There was a look in Old Mr. Johnson's eye that Skyler felt like he had seen before. On a hunch he recorded a trideo image of him.

"Really?" Klubbs asked, his face brightening.

"Really." Gary said, cycling five credsticks through his commlink one at a time. Once he was done with them he passed them to Old Mr. Johnson, who did the same.

The credsticks were then passed around to Skyler and the others. Slotting it he found the remaining sixty-five hundred nuyen on it, and shuffled it off to another credstick.

"So how'd it all start?" Mina asked.

"Oh, sometime back in thirty-eight." Gary said, "It was a saltshaker prank."

"Hardly." Old Mr. Johnson said gruffly, "It was the setup with that transvestite secretary."

"Transvestite secretary?" Gary asked.

Skyler closed his eyes, running a few fingers over his right ear as he thought at just how bad a setup with a transvestite could go.

"I really don't remember any transvestite." Gary said.

Eyes open again, Skyler looked between the two Johnsons. Gary looked genuinely confused, while Old Mr. Johnson looked almost fit to be tied.

"Yes. Kristy Bells." Old Mr. Johnson said, and Gary's face lit up with recognition.

"His real name was Chris Bells." Old Mr. Johnson added sternly.

The sensor software running in Skyler's goggles advised caution on pending aggression from Old Mr. Johnson. He really did not need a string of code to tell him that Old Mr. Johnson was really upset and angry right now.

But no violence came as Old Mr. Johnson stood and walked out of the room. Three of the bodyguards walked out just behind him.

"Yes, it's probably best time that we do go." Gary said as he stood. "Hopefully we'll have some better business in the future." he told them as he left, the other three bodyguards following behind him.

"Well, I had been looking to retire. Maybe find a new line of work." Klubbs told them.

"Looks like you got the money to start early." Nocturne said. "I'll order us all dinner if you'd like to stay."

"Thanks, but I think we really should get going." Athena told him as she stood.

Skyler took this as his cue to stand as well.

After leaving the Corson Place Hotel Nocturne went off on his separate way. With the look Skyler caught him giving him and Mina, he wondered if maybe they ought to tell the white haired spook the truth about their real age.

Dinner was made from their home SPU, with everyone opting to eat in their own rooms.

It was about four in the morning when Skyler woke to a pounding on their bedroom door. "Get your asses in gear!" Athena yelled.

"What?" Skyler yelled back.

"Just do it! Words on the way!"

With a little griping from Mina they got dressed and were downstairs to meet up with Athena and Roadblock. Athena was quite pushy in getting them out the door that Skyler was feeling glad he had bothered to grab his handguns.

They had a metro car all to themselves as they headed into Manhattan. It was there that Athena explained that she had gotten a frantic call from Cheli about Klubbs. She did not say it, but Skyler knew that they were still on that call.

What Athena did tell them was that Klubbs was dead and Cheli was in desperate need for help. Not knowing who to call she had contacted Athena.

Along the way Skyler received an image of the Horizon logo from an anonymous source. After decrypting the actual message from within the image he found it to be a request to take charge of Cheli until Ieto Hong could step in. This he silently let Mina know about along the way.

It was a few blocks from the Corson Place Hotel that Athena had traced the call, and it was a hurried pace from the metro to get there.

They found Cheli at a street corner. Straight away she rushed to Athena, crying.

"Cypher, Firefly, check it out. Roadblock, keep an eye on them." Athena said.

The distinctive thrumming of an MCT-Nissan roto-drone buzzed by as they stepped into the shadows of an alleyway. A few meters in and it was not hard to track down where Klubbs was, following an ever growing stream of blood. For Skyler, there was also the fixer's active commlink as well.

"Just what are we supposed to look for?" Mina asked softly.

"Anything." Skyler answered as he knelt down beside Klubbs. "Those crime trids always go on about what's not supposed to be at a scene."

Skyler applied himself to Klubbs's commlink, his mind stretching between the virtual and real worlds. Every single model and brand was capable of taking trideo, pictures, and audio recordings, and thinking there was a chance of any clue he figured he would hack into it. He also scanned Klubbs's body with the sensors on his left hand.

It was almost for naught, as amongst the data in the dwarf's commlink there was almost nothing. The last pic taken was the only clue, an image of someone in a very nice suit. Skyler did not even have to run it through any of his sensor programs to recognize it as one of the personal security guards of either Old Mr. Johnson or Gary Deltona. Unfortunately there were no audio recordings to help.

The sensor scan did not really bring up anything that just looking at Klubbs would have told. The dwarf had been shot three times, twice in the chest and once in the head. The way his body was twisted it looked like he had been tossed out of a moving car.

"I really don't like it here." Mina said after another roto-drone buzzed by. "Those drones are giving me the creeps."

"All I got from his commlink," Skyler said as he stood back up, "was a close up of a guy in a suit. Not even a face." After a pause a thought hit him. "Might have another angle, though." he said as he connected to another roto-drone that was buzzing along nearby.

"What do ya mean?" Mina asked.

Rather than hacking into the drone, Skyler back traced the signal to Manhattan's drone network. Calling up his crack and data sprites for help he went straight to forcing his way into that network.

"Have you found anything?" asked Athena as she and Cheli walked up to them.

"Chasing a lead." Skyler said as he wormed his way into the drone network. He started looking at how security footage was catalogued before diving in to find what he hoped was there.

"I got nothing." Mina said, shrugging.

"What're they talking about?" Cheli asked. Her face was red and her cheeks flushed from her tears. Even now some still trickled from her reddened eyes.

"They're a hell of a lot more experienced than you think, kiddo." Athena said, patting Cheli's shoulder. "And they're both good people."

"Yeah, so're the other guys." Skyler said, finding a badly angled trideo sample that gave a small clue. "All I got is an image of one of the Johnsons' bodyguards, and a basic black car with Shiawase plates driving by here when…" He let the sentence drop, though his mind still worked. What if one of the two was connected to Shiawase somehow?

"Well, I've already called someone to help here." Athena told them. "We'll just wait here for him. Hopefully won't take too long.

Skyler had long since cleaned up his trace evidence in the Manhattan drone network and was disconnected by the time help came.

First was a black, luxury, Mercedes sedan. Behind it was a black Toyota Coaster SUV. From the sedan stepped Ieto Hong and two others.

"This here's Mr. Hong." Athena told Cheli, "He's here to help."

"Make sure she's comfortable." Ieto told one of the two men that were with him. Once Cheli was out of earshot, he asked, "So, what do we know?"

Athena started. "Her dad went missing, and she used his 'link to try and track him down. It was after four when she found him, panicked, and called us."

"We haven't touched the body." Skyler added, "He was shot, execution style, with a high caliber pistol." His hand drifted near his Warhawk as he continued, "Last pic on his 'link's of one of the Johnson's bodyguards, and I got another from a roto-drone showing him being dumped from a car with Shiawase plates."

"One of the Johnsons?" Ieto asked.

"We were hired by Klubbs to do a job for one of them. A practical joke, really." Athena said.

"I ain't laughing." Mina muttered.

"Nor am I." Ieto added.

"When we met to get paid there were two Johnsons." Athena continued, "One of them was Mr. …"

Ieto held up a hand to stop her.

"Here." Skyler said, connecting himself to Ieto's commlink and encrypting the connection. He then created an ARO with images of both Old Mr. Johnson and Gary Deltona.

"I see." Ieto said.

Skyler closed the ARO and the connection.

"I can assure you that…." Ieto started to say.

"Young Mr. Johnson?" Skyler prompted.

"Yes, Young Mr. Johnson would have nothing to do with something like this." Ieto told them.

"So you think it was the other?" asked Athena.

Ieto waved with one hand towards the SUV. Two men got out of it and walked towards them.

"I rightly can't say." Ieto told them, "And I'm afraid my business here is more to do with the girl now than anything. We'll take care of her father, and properly. Best to go ahead and go home, and not worry about this."

"Not worry about this!?" Mina asked rather loudly.

The two men walked past them, seemingly unconcerned by Mina's outburst.

"Rash thinking and actions won't help anyone, and could mean your death." Ieto said sternly. "Right now what you should focus on is your own safety. You are all quite capable, so I expect no mistakes."

The two men walked back, carefully carrying Klubbs's body between them. With the sedan's windows blacked out Skyler guessed that Cheli could not see a thing that was happening.

"So we should just pretend like it never happened?" Mina asked.

Skyler put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off. He hoped that she would not be calling up Astorath, since having that spirit around usually meant big trouble.

The two men had Klubbs in the SUV, and they were all set to go by the time the next roto-drone buzzed past.

"Not at all. Don't forget it at all." Ieto told them, "Just be patient."

Mina did not like that suggestion at all.

Right now they did not have enough information to go after someone, guns blazing. Skyler wanted to do some research first.

"Karma does exist." Ieto told them as he turned to walk back to the sedan, "Bad karma does have a habit of coming back against someone."

"Sounds like a fucking dragon." Mina muttered just as the sedan door closed. If Ieto heard that or not it did not look like he cared.

"Right, well, let's go back home." Athena suggested.

The metro ride back was almost as quiet as the sudden trip out. Mina sulked all the way, saying nothing the whole way. The first thing she did when they got back to the brownstone was to rush upstairs and slam the bedroom door.

"She ever been this pissed off?" asked Athena.

"Not at me." Skyler said as he dropped onto the couch.

"So what're you gonna do?"

Skyler sighed before saying, "What I was gonna do anyway. Research."

"Great, a lot of fun." Athena said sarcastically.

It certainly did not sound like a lot of fun to Skyler either, but what happened to Cheli made him think about Catherine Westmore. Granted it was Cheli's father that was killed instead, but it felt too similar to just let go.

And at least this time he had more information to go on.

After letting his mind sink into the flow of virtual reality he started with looking up Gary Deltona again, and searched for connections between him, the class of 2038 at NYU Stern School Of Business, and tied in his image of Old Mr. Johnson with a threaded version of his facial recognition program. The amount of data to sift through was immense.

The glow of the rising sun had filled the living room of the brownstone by the time Skyler had found himself a name for Old Mr. Johnson.

With the real name of Robert Breham, Skyler started a new search. After at least another hour of searching he had a connection between him and Gary Deltona, a rivalry between Ignensys and another company called Chelsey Financials, and Shiawase.

Coming back to the real world Skyler found out how full his bladder was, and how empty his stomach was.

"Ready for brunch?" Athena asked.

Skyler's stomach gurgled loudly.

"I'll fix you up something."

The SPU had finished producing a sandwich when Skyler was finished in the bathroom. It was a good replication of white bread, a fried egg, melted cheese, and ham.

"Firefly still in our room?" Skyler asked as he sat down at the small table in the kitchen. He took the sandwich in one hand and took a bite out of it.

"Pretty much. Came down once for food, glared at me, and went back in." Athena said, sipping her soykaf as she sat down at the table with him. "Any idea why she's taking this one so badly? I mean, it's not like you two haven't seen a dead body or had a dead Johnson before, right?"

Skyler mulled the question over in his mind as he ate his sandwich. Swallowing, he said, "Well, we've had a Johnson try to kill us once. Found a dead fixer before we could get a job from him another time. She never acted like this then. It's like this time it's personal or something."

"And you know how bad it is to take something personal in this biz, right?" Athena asked.

"Pretty much." Skyler said. Thinking back about shooting the razorboy Billy in the face, maybe that had been more personal than it should have been. But how else should he take it when Billy was going to kidnap him to be a personal slave for some Yakuza asshole?

"So, find anything interesting in your research?" Athena asked.

"Old Mr. Johnson's real name's Robert Breham, he worked at Ignensys before starting his own company called Breham Unlimited, which got bought by Shiawase six years ago." Skyler recanted. "Gary Deltona worked at a place called Chelsey Financials 'bout the same time before he moved on. The two corps've been prankin' each other ever since."

"Anything else related to those two companies?" Athena asked, "Customers? Products? Services?"

"Not a fuckin' thing." Skyler said, chomping another bite of his sandwich. With a half full mouth he said, "Chelsey's a legal and financial biz."

"And Ignensys's a software company for small businesses." Athena added, "Not exactly on the same field. And what about what happened to Klubbs?"

"Nothing I could find." Skyler said. Sure, Robert Breham now worked for Shiawase, and a company vehicle would have that mega's plates on it, but it was not enough to tie the two together.

Athena sighed.

Skyler swallowed the last of his sandwich before asking, "What is it?"

"While you were data mining I got a call from both Johnsons." Athena told him. "It's a pocket change job, but they kinda asked for the same thing to be done to end the feud. Young Mr. Johnson wants us to swap a trophy at Ignensys for a salt shaker he'll provide, and return the trophy to Chelsey Financial. Old Mr. Johnson wants us to just take the same trophy to return it to Chelsey."

"I guess that could end it." Skyler said. "So what're they offering?"

"A thousand nuyen, each."

Athena was right. Compared to past jobs this really was pocket change. This kind of job felt more like a decision on moral obligation.

Before his emergence and subsequent deep dive into the shadows, Skyler had been planning on doing something related to business and economics. He might have even ended up working at a company like Chelsey Financial. Over thirty years of pranking each other could have been rather harmful to the productivity of both businesses, and a part of him wanted to help get those two back on track for their corporate objectives.

"It's not because we've got a lot of cred," Skyler said, "but if it'll end the feud then I'd say we should do it."

"Roadblock was feeling the same way." Athena told him. "Nocturne was rather put out for the pay."

Skyler groaned. "Do I always have to work with money grubbers that can't budget?"

"I think it's more like he found the pay offer insulting." Athena told him. "Don't worry, if we do take the job he'll be in. But now what about your girlfriend?"

"I'll try talking to her." Skyler said, his chair screeching on the floor as he stood.

"Good luck." Athena said as Skyler headed upstairs.

Skyler felt like he might need it. At least he did not have to worry about being knocked back down the stairs since the door to their bedroom opened into the room, especially with the top of the stairs immediately to his right.

Rather than just walk on in like he normally would he knocked on the door first. Finding it was not locked he then went in.

"What?" Mina demanded. She was sitting in their bay window, looking out. It was not much of a view with other homes up and down the street.

"We got a job that should help end the feud between the Johnsons." Skyler said.

"Why the hell should I care?" Mina asked loudly.

Skyler closed the door before walking up to her. "Alright, what's up?" he asked, "You've been bitchy all day."

"It's what Ieto said." Mina told him.

"About what happened to Klubbs?"

"It's not just that…" Mina said softly.

"Hey, it's not like we don't care." Skyler said, joining her in the bay window, sitting behind her. "We just don't have shit to go on." He intentionally did not mention the Shiawase connection to Robert Brehan to Mina, figuring that she might actually send Astorath or some other crazed spirit after the executive. There was no evidence linking him to Klubbs's murder.

"But what about Cheli?" Mina asked, turning to face Skyler, "She's lost her father!" It looked like she had been crying for most of the day.

Skyler was about to say that Cheli was without both of her parents, but decided to keep his mouth shut.

"You don't get it." Mina muttered, turning back around.

"Well I'm no mind reader." Skyler told her.

Mina started sobbing again, and Skyler really hoped it was not because of what he said.

Scooting closer, Skyler put his hands on Mina's shoulders. Slowly he inched closer, slipping his arms around her.

"I never knew my father." Mina said softly. "Mom… never told me anything about him. She yelled at me when I tried to ask about him, sayin' he's a worthless deadbeat… So I…" Her voice cracked as new tears welled up in her eyes.

Skyler did know something about Mina's mother. A vocal Humanis Policlub sympathizer, she had a hard decision to make when Mina was born an elf. Rather than do what some of the more extreme Humanis members might have done, Mina was cosmetically altered within days of being born to look human.

"So what happened to Cheli made you think of yourself." Skyler said softly, "How you both have lost a father."

Still crying, Mina turned around again, burying her face into his chest.

Skyler's commlink beeped with a new message. With a thought he opened it. It was from Athena, and she said she was heading out to meet with some contacts about the next job. He was glad that neither of them were required, especially when it seemed like Mina was not interested in going anywhere.

He also felt like figuring out who ordered Klubbs killed, but decided that could wait till later. Right now Mina needed all of his attention.

Even a cryptic message from an anonymous Ares source was not enough to do more than distract a part of his mind for longer than it took to decrypt the message from the logo. It was a simple request, but one that he decided he would mention to Mina.

Apparently Ares figured their job crossed with that of another shadowrunner team, and Ares wanted them eliminated. Depending on how things went, Skyler and Mina were sure to do just that. But Mina's aversion to doing wetwork of any kind, and she would call this request wetwork and call up their agreement about not doing any kind of wetwork, meant that Skyler would not be telling her about this one at all. He also decided not to try and start things.

It was late that evening when they were all together again on Pine Street, just outside the Hanover Square Building. Like last time they got past the security in the lobby, but this time it was Skyler who was already in the building's network. He was also glad that he was the hacker this time as Ignensys had upped their security since their prank, including a security spider that was on site to monitor things. Long before their elevator reached the twenty-second floor all of the security cameras had been subverted, along with some of the spider's running software.

Old Mr. Johnson had also given her a maglock passkey that they could use to get into Ignensys to get the trophy. Suspicious about this considering what Skyler had found about the last one they were given, she had suggested that Skyler instead hack in and remotely open the door for them.

That suspicion had been justified, as Skyler did check the maglock's software on the elevator ride up. The passkey they had been given would trigger a text message to be sent off to someone.

"Oh God." Mina said as they quietly opened the door to the Ignensys office.

"Yeah, this's what happens when toilets overflow." Nocturne said as he walked in, apparently unaffected by the smell of sewage, ammonia, and a cocktail of cleaning fluids. Skyler wondered if Nocturne had an implant in his nose to cut off the smell like another shadowrunner he worked with.

Athena had told them the particulars of the jobs. Gary Deltona had provided a twenty-five centimeter tall salt shaker made of crystal and platinum that they were to replace with a trophy that had been taken from Chelsey Financials. Both he and Old Mr. Johnson had requested that the trophy be returned to Chelsey Financials.

With the security spider deep in VR, and Skyler editing the video feeds to conceal their activities, they swapped the trophy for the salt shaker and left. It was not until after they had left the Hanover Square building that Skyler logged himself from the building.

Jaywalking they avoided traffic cameras to get to the Gelford building. With a bit of magic Athena hid the trophy from prying eyes, and Skyler had the building's network so they could take an elevator to the twenty-second floor and Chelsey Financials.

Security was surprisingly similar to the Hanover Square building, as was the basic floor plan as well.

"At least this job's an easy one." Athena said as they stepped out of the elevator.

"Matches the pay." Nocturne added as he opened the doors into the office.

"Ambush!" Nocturne yelled, suddenly diving out of view.

There was a gunshot just as Nocturne yelled, and Skyler barely had Mina out of the way as Roadblock stumbled backwards a few steps.

The gunshot was certainly not enough to stop a minotaur. Enraged, Roadblock bellowed and charged into the office. Skyler briefly saw a troll woman behind a cubicle before Roadblock plowed through it and into her. Unlike trolls and fomori, minotaurs had horns made for combat.

"First time I wished these places had cameras on the inside!" Skyler yelled, pulling both of his Predator pistols as he approached the doorway.

More gunshots rang out from around the office, and seeing someone that did not look like Nocturne or Roadblock, Skyler shot twice. He blew apart a portion of a cubicle wall instead.

"Look out!" yelled Mina.

Skyler barely saw the troll woman fly at him. A quick dive forward for a tuck and roll got him clear of the very large woman before she landed where he was. Glancing at Roadblock he saw the minotaur shrug an apology.

Then the world completely changed, and for a moment Skyler thought he could fly. The next thing he knew he was getting a good taste of the carpet itself.

Skyler groaned as he tried to push himself to his feet, his ears ringing. The ringing had been worse before, but this time the pain was much worse. His right arm refused to cooperate as he awkwardly managed to get himself up.

The office of Chelsey Financials was a complete shambles. Nowhere near the mess Ignensys likely was after their prank, or even Rocky Mountain Dynamics after Skyler had gone through their office spaces, but something more like some Middle East warzone.

Looking around the devastation he did not see Mina, and started to become frantic. His head still ringing he could not even feel the signal of her commlink.

Then Skyler spotted Mina, half buried in cubicle debris, and his heart sank when he saw she was not moving.

Though his right arm was numb, Skyler's legs felt like they were working fine. Though maybe a little unsteady he managed to stand nearly upright. With his left arm he drew his sword as he slowly and unsurely walked towards the troll woman where she now lay. He had no idea who she was, what she was doing here, but right now all he cared about was that she was here first, had started the fight, and for all he knew had been planting whatever explosives there were that had just detonated.

"_Stop!_" yelled a man. He was about as tall as Skyler, with mouse brown hair.

Something otherworldly touched Skyler directly in his mind. For an instant he felt like he should just stop what he was doing. He was in no mood to listen, and seeing the man just behind the troll woman he rushed him instead. With a single handed backhand swing Skyler tried to take the other man's head off.

He was incredibly quick, but just not quick enough as Skyler's sword sliced through his armored suit.

Pressing the attack Skyler swung his sword back again, and this time he had the man's head. It was not a glorious decapitation like in all of the samurai trids and whatnot, but the top half of his head was sliced clean off.

Like a puppet with the cords cut, he collapsed.

Pain blossomed from Skyler's back, and he stumbled forward several steps. He spun around, sword up and ready, and caught the troll woman's intended right cross. Half reflexively bringing the blade higher, he sliced the woman's arm clean off. He was sprayed with her blood as they both followed through.

The troll woman was fast, and maybe it was the shock of losing her arm that stunned her, but Skyler saw an opening that he could not pass up.

Again with a return swing Skyler brought his sword around. Being large did have its advantages at times, but this time it was perfect for his sword to hit her in the thigh. The monofilament edge sliced through her armored clothing, flesh, and bone, like it was nothing. Blood gushed from the wound as she fell over.

"Roadblock, get Firefly!" he heard Athena yell as he plunged his sword through the troll woman's chest.

Roadblock looked like hell as he came tromping into view.

"Oh shit." Skyler said, realizing where they were.

"Yeah." Athena said as she stepped up beside him. "You need help?"

His mouth was open, but the words escaped him. Skyler simply nodded as he watched Roadblock throw aside the debris that were on Mina like they were nothing, only carefully pick her up like she was the most delicate flower.

Athena pulled his sword from the troll woman's body, and he could feel it being slid back into its scabbard.

"C'mon, time to go." Athena told him, giving Skyler a gentle nudge for the elevators.

The world became a blur of lights, shadows, and random noises as the elevator went down. He could remember them taking an elevator down, and then somehow they were getting off the city streets and into a van. Somewhere in his mind he thought one of the others knew the driver, an elf or an ork, he could not recall. He could remember the flashes of street lights as they went, and hated how it reflected the color of blood.

He had no idea when they stopped, and nothing in his mind said he should care. Someone helped him out of the van and into the cool night air. Right now he hated the feeling of it, and the taste of pollution that coated his nose and mouth.

Then he was in a warm room, and someone was helping him undress. Skyler almost shot the woman that was undressing him, surprising her as a Morrissey Élan appeared in his left hand, but apparently Nocturne was there. His voice was a blur, like the recording of smudged magnetic tape, and Skyler soon felt very relaxed.

Opening his eyes again Skyler found his mind a little clearer. He was in what looked like a hospital bed, naked from the waist up, and his weapons had been taken. The lights were low and the curtains drawn, so he figured it was night out.

"Feeling better?" he heard Athena ask.

"No." Skyler said softly.

"Best answer I've gotten all night."

"What about… Fire…"

"She's in surgery right now." Athena told him. "Don't know much more than that."

"So where are we?"

"At a street doc's in The Pit." Athena told him. It meant that they were still in Manhattan.

"She was hurt plenty bad," Athena continued, "and you were losing blood, so we went to where we knew we all could get patched up after that fuckup. If it wasn't for one of her spirits on you two, you both might not've made it here alive." She sighed, saying, "Wish I knew what the hell happened."

"What?" Skyler asked.

"That other team. The ones planting those explosives." Athena explained. "Why that place of all times?"

"What happened to them?"

"Far as I know they're all dead." Athena told him. "After the bombs went off you got two of them, and Roadblock and Nocturne got the others. Well, those that survived the blast. They were both pretty pissed."

"Good." Skyler said softly, feeling relieved. He could care less why Ares wanted them disposed of, but was more concerned that those bombs had almost killed him and Mina.

"That they were pretty pissed?"

"That the other team's dead."

Athena looked away, apparently not sure what to say. Maybe she had to remind herself that Skyler really was about as old as she, and not the boy he appeared to be.

"How much do you know about technomancers?" Skyler asked, breaking the silence. He flexed the fingers of his left hand, making sure his mind could connect to the data chips in them. His whole right arm still felt numb and unresponsive.

"A little. Honestly you're the first one I've worked with." Athena told him.

"I'm gonna dive the resonance." Skyler said, "It's kinda like doin' an outa body experience." He looked up at her. "Time's funny doing this. I don't know how long I'll be… out."

"Okay." Athena said, nodding. It looked like she was a little unsure of what was happening.

Skyler cut himself off from the matrix, severing all connections except to his fake cybernetic hand, and turning his thoughts inward and sinking into VR. It was the first step into finding his way into the resonance realms.

It was not as simple as just turning one's mind in on itself like this. It took time to harmonize with the resonance, to find the Event Horizon to pass on to the resonance realms themselves.

Broken down to the very basics, each technomancer pretty much did the same thing to approach the Event Horizon. How a technomancer experienced this was often unique, though there were always two things consistent no matter what. Every technomancer that came before the Event Horizon looked like their real world selves and not their matrix icons, and the Event Horizon tested everyone before they could pass on to any of the resonance realms.

Skyler had no idea how long he had been walking, but it felt like it had been for a very long time. He even had no idea how he had even started walking, but for him this was the approach to the Event Horizon, so he did not put much thought into it.

Like the last time he had been here, Skyler did not look like his icon of an armored warrior wearing a robe. He was himself, a meter and a half tall, half naked and barefoot, and with a stitched and blood stained right arm. Even his fake cybernetic arm was with him, and at the edge of his mind he could feel the data chips built into it.

The corridor he walked down had a very gothic look to it, dark, with pointed arches and pillars, and an occasional torch to provide just enough illumination that you'll know what you tripped on the instant you trip on it. It was also more than large enough for a troll or giant to walk without fear of bumping his or her head. Skyler figured that one giant, which averaged three meters tall, could stand on another's shoulders and be nowhere near able to reach the top of a pillar, the corridor was that large.

There was no one else here, and his footfalls were nearly silent with each step.

At the end of the corridor was an equally massive set of double doors. Large torches burned at the sides, giving more illumination here to see by. The doors themselves were gold, sculpted in the scene of some kind of epic battle between the forces of good and evil. It reminded him more of one Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel, the one titled 'The Last Judgment.'

Standing before the door was a single entity. It looked like a person, but Skyler knew that was far from the truth.

He had reached the Event Horizon.

From stories that Skyler had read and heard, the Event Horizon sometimes looked the same to various technomancers. Like the varied traditions of magicians and their Dweller On The Threshold to reach the metaplanes, the Event Horizon's appearance often seemed to be related to the stream of the technomancer. But if this was the rule, there was always an exception.

To Skyler, the Event Horizon was something four times the size of a man, resplendent in highly ornate gold armor, embellished with eagle wings on the pauldrons, an eagle with its wings spread across the breastplate, flaring eagle heads from the knees, and more. In his right hand was a long sword, its polished silver blade aflame as it rested point down on the cold stone floor. His right hand was easily three times the relative normal size, each of the four fingers and thumb ending in a curved talon like those of an eagle. He wore no helmet, revealing features beyond handsome, and his eyes nothing more than glowing orbs too bright to look at.

As far as Skyler knew, he was the only technomancer that saw the Event Horizon this way.

"Speak your purpose." the Event Horizon told him without speaking, the 'voice' deep and powerful sounding. It felt like it had the kind of authority that you just did not question or disobey at all.

"I seek information in the Endless Archives." Skyler said, carefully enunciating his words like it was a public address. Trying to deceive the Event Horizon was one of those things you just never did. Especially considering for what came next.

Skyler could feel its gaze wash over him, probing him and tapping into his memories like a hacker accessing a data file.

His vision washed away, replaced with the bombed Chelsey Financials office. This time he was not himself, but a third party viewer as the scene replayed before him like a trideo broadcast.

Watching himself like this had an oddly detached feeling, but he forced himself to not look away as his memory self slowly stood and drew his sword with his left hand. He could remember the numbed rage at seeing Mina lying on the floor, and his new vantage made things even worse as he could better see her now, lying in the rubble and bleeding.

His memory self slashed at the brown haired human, drawing a deep line across his chest. Skyler screamed out in pain as he felt the attack, his chest burning just as if he had been cut in the same way. Looking down he saw his own bare chest, and a similar slash now spilling him open.

Still he watched as his memory self cleaved the man's skull, gritting his teeth as he felt new pain sear through his own head. He could feel blood flowing down, but still his head remained as one piece.

The pain only grew worse as he watched, next his right arm and leg as he dismembered the troll woman. He felt his blood gushing away from these new wounds, wanted to black out, wanted to cry out that it was enough, that he wanted no more. He did his best to ignore the pain, the feeling of his own blood as it spurted with every pounding heartbeat from his body, to remind himself that the injuries were not his own.

The world snapped just as he ran his sword into the troll woman's body, the pain was gone, and once again he was back in the gothic hallway, the Event Horizon standing before him. Even though the world was not real, that there was no need to breathe, he was panting, his heart pounding in his chest like he had sprinted up the stairs to a Buddhist monastery. Checking himself he found no blood, no wounds, and his body still intact.

"Your request is granted, Cypher." the Event Horizon told him.

Rather than some grand entrance, like the doors opening before him, the world around Skyler melted and he found himself now in a vast library. Shelves of parchment, scrolls, books, and even crystals and electronic slates ran for as far as the eye could see. And he was in the middle of it all.

He was not alone. Numerous sprites, variously and curiously shaped, bustled around, carrying various items as they went about sorting all of the information that exited (or had existed) in the matrix.

With a thought Skyler called upon a sprite of his own. It only took a second for the data sprite to arrive, a floating human skull without a jawbone, a red camera lens instead of a right eye, a single manipulator claw protruding from the left socket of where the jawbone would connect, and over half a dozen mechadendrite cables dangling from where the brain stem would normally be.

Together the two set about looking for what data they could about what happened to them the last few days. Over time they had started to collect numerous scrolls, gems, and other representations of data. Skyler also started to upset some of the librarian sprites, as Skyler took the data with him as he went about, but he would not let the sprites take the data to organize it.

His data sprite beeped as it zipped up to him with a scroll suspended in its mechadendrites, and several other sprites following to try and snag it to file the scroll where it belonged. They gave up when they saw Skyler, and the sprite deposit the scroll into his hands. The scroll itself was contents and code of a text message the executive had sent, and the bottom line read, '_Deleted, April 29th, 2072, 22:57:43 EDT. Archived, 22:57:44 EDT._' This too Skyler pocketed, for it had data connecting Breham to the others that were at Chelsey Financial and the bombing.

Skyler rolled the parchment up tight and touched it to his left index finger. The scroll vanished into a cloud of pixels and bytes as it was uploaded into the corresponding data chip.

With that one piece of data saved, Skyler started sifting through his collected pile, grabbing a specific book, another scroll, and even a small gemstone. Each one vanished the same way as he transferred the data.

Returning to the real world was so much easier than finding the passage to the Event Horizon. Like a deep sea diver swimming for the surface, Skyler felt like he was rising, rushing to the surface.

Skyler groaned as he woke, his body feeling a little sore and stiff. Slowly he tried to move, unsure of exactly how long he had been gone. For a moment he started to worry when he felt that he could not, but figured he just needed time.

He was still in a hospital bed, alone, with an IV in his right arm. His left hand was still in the cybernetic casing, and as he looked at his hand Skyler could feel the data files he had found resting in the data chip in the index finger. A quick peek of them told him they were there, just as he had found in the Endless Archive.

Bright light flooded the room when the door opened, and a nurse quickly slipped in.

"We've got a brainwave monitor on you." the nurse said without prompting. "I came as soon as we saw activity." She disappeared out of sight.

"How long?" asked Skyler. Even the muscles in his face felt like stiff clay.

"Four days."

"And… F…"

"Your friend's still unconscious, but she's gonna make it. The surgery went without a hitch." After a moment she added, "I'll be back with a new IV."

Skyler clenched his eyes against the blinding light as she left.

It was morning when Skyler next opened his eyes. He still felt a little stiff, but at least his arms and legs moved when he wanted to.

He also was not alone. Sitting in a simple plastic chair was Athena. It looked like she had been there a while.

Seeing he was awake, Athena asked, "Find what you went looking for?"

"Yeah. How's Firefly?" His throat felt dry.

"Still sleeping, but the doc's told me she should be fine enough to wake up now and come home." Athena told him, "Same for you, too, when you're ready."

"When she's ready." Skyler told her, his voice croaking. He did not care that he might be ready now, he was not going to leave without Mina.

"Here." Athena said, stepping over to the side of his bed and helping with a glass of water.

Mina did wake up later that morning, and though she was still tired the two of them spent some time together. Skyler was relieved that she was okay, but concerned considering her mood. She was gloomy and seemed to lack interest in almost everything in general.

It was that evening when the three of them left together. Athena had gotten herself a new car, a sleek Eurocar Westwind 3K that was a dark blue in color. She lifted the scissor door for the two of them to get in. While they still had to share a passenger seat, it was a lot better than being in the Mercury Comet, making for a much more pleasant ride home.

The whole way, Mina said nothing, nor did she seem to react to Skyler's touch.

That Wednesday, two days after coming home, Skyler received a text that was nothing but a jumble of garbage characters. Figuring it was like when he received other messages about a little job or favor or task, he sat down and went to decrypting it. To his surprise it was from NYPD Inc., with not much more than an address and time to meet.

Though Mina was physically fine, emotionally she was still depressed and exhausted. With other things in mind Skyler told her that he would be back later.

With his handguns in their holsters, complements of Athena having collected the Predators he had dropped at Chelsey Financial, he quietly slipped out of their brownstone.

After several blocks Skyler got a funny feeling. Maybe he was a bit on edge after having survived an office bombing, but being in a city in the dead of night had its own dangers. While being small had its advantages sometimes, the very same could easily be their own disadvantages as well.

With a thought he activated the sensors in his fake left hand. After a few swings of his arm as he walked he wished that he had installed a camera in it now. At least then he could possibly see behind him better, and see if he really was being followed. Sometimes he thought he heard footsteps almost matching his own pace perfectly, but just out of synch enough to be a noticed annoyance.

Coming up at a small park, Skyler suddenly sidestepped in and amongst the trees and other plant life. At his command his clothing changed to camouflage him as he found a tall bush to hide behind. Being a meter and a half tall had its advantage here.

Someone had been following him after all, as a man quickly walked into the park at the same place that Skyler had. Five quick steps and he went right by where Skyler was hiding, and then stopped. He was wearing an armored long coat that was charcoal gray in color.

Drawing his Warhawk Skyler stepped out from his hiding place. With the heavy revolver aimed at the man he pulled the hammer back and readied himself to shoot.

The man raised his hands.

"Talk or you're a holy man." Skyler said.

"I ain't some pedophile if that's what you're thinking." the man said.

At least that statement ran true to his lie detector software.

"Right, so let's start with the who." Skyler said.

"Just a good employee of Ares Macrotechnology."

A half truth.

"Care to try again?" Skyler asked.

"Before I do, can I turn around?"

"Slowly."

Hands still in the air, the man slowly turned himself around so they were looking at each other.

"Ah, there's the trick." the man said.

Realizing that his dressCODE clothing was still set to camouflage, Skyler set his clothes back to basic black with a thought.

"I was supposed to deliver a package to someone named Cypher. Guess that is you after all." the man said.

Again he was speaking the truth.

"Right then. Slowly." Skyler told the man. Part of him wished that he could trust the man, to make this ordeal go by more quickly as the weight of the Warhawk was starting to make his injured arm ache.

The Ares guy slowly opened up his long coat, moving so Skyler could clearly see he had no handguns hidden underneath.

What he did have were two rockets for a missile launcher. These the man placed on the ground and took three steps back from them.

Keeping his Warhawk ready, Skyler stepped up to them and picked up one of the rockets.

"They're not just any kind of missile." the man said, "They're Heimdall missile drones with high explosive warheads. Use them wisely." He then turned his back on Skyler and walked off without another word.

Skyler quietly eased the hammer back on his Warhawk before he holstered it. Its weight felt better at his hip than through his arm.

Holding the Heimdall in his right hand (it felt light compared to his Warhawk) he scanned it with the other. After a few passes he knew the drone's insides, and found there were no RFID tags of any kind in it. The other Heimdall was exactly the same.

Figuring he would later examine the software of the drones, Skyler did his best to hide them inside of his coat as he went back to walking to his meet with his contact with NYPD Inc.

After a good walk Skyler reached the playground that was wedged between Broadway and Woodside in Queens.

At least the contact was the same man as before. He was there, waiting, leaning against the ladder of a slide.

"Where's your other half?" he asked.

"She didn't feel up to it."

"All things considered, I'm not surprised."

"So what is it this time? A poisoned dart gun that looks like a pen?"

"Not at all." the man told him, nudging a duffle bag with one foot. "It's for the both of you."

"Fine, but you gotta do something for me too, or we're done."

"Doesn't work that way, kid."

"Don't give me that shit." snapped Skyler, "It's easy, so don't get bent out of shape."

"I'm listening, but that doesn't mean I'll do it."

"Bet you will." challenged Skyler, "You know someone investigating what happened?"

"Maybe."

The lie detector software pegged that as a lie.

Skyler pulled out a data chip with the files he had found in the Endless Archives. "Give this to whoever's heading it up. You can tell 'em you got an anonymous tip."

The man looked at him skeptically. "I don't want to know, do I?" he said.

"No." Skyler told him, "And that's all you gotta do."

The man accepted the chip. "And if I don't?"

"Then our arrangement's off, for the both of us. The end. Finito. Sayonara. Your boss can find someone else to do the little things." Skyler told him sternly.

"And how'll you know, one way or another?" the man asked, pocketing the chip.

Skyler chuckled, a slight grin creeping to his lips. "Oh, I'll know." he said. He walked up to the duffle bag and opened it enough to slip the Heimdall missiles into it. "The whole city will know." Skyler said softly as he picked up the duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder like he had forgotten it there earlier that day.

Without another word he walked on by and left the playground.


	4. Run 03 : Burning Bridges

Run 03 : Burning Bridges (based on the mission written by Mark Edwards; updated 2014/06/24)

After almost a week Skyler had started to wonder if NYPD Inc. had cut them off or not.

The afternoon of May 12th gave him his answer. Skyler was going through all of their handguns, cleaning and performing other maintenance while having an ARO to WWOR and a Manhattan Yankees game open. Between innings a news clip about Robert Breham was played, reporting that he was arrested on numerous counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and more. It was also said that NYPD Inc. had acted on a tipoff from an anonymous person.

It looked like their arrangement with NYPD Inc. was still on.

Her mood a little better, Mina had spent the last week setting up her mana lodge. What she did tell him was that it would ward their living space in the brownstone, which was the entirety of their bathroom, two walk-in closets, as well as the little extras that extended from the actual bedroom.

With the various things that Mina had for her lodge now decorating their room, it was starting to look more like home. Granted they were sharing the brownstone with two others, Athena with her own bedroom on the top floor with them, and Roadblock with his own bedroom next to the garage on the ground floor, but it was their own space.

Later that evening Athena did knock on their door. "You two decent?" she asked.

"Yeah." grunted Skyler as he and Mina sat up on their bed, pausing the recorded trideo program they were watching. She stayed behind while he rolled off of it to walk to their bedroom door. He unlocked it, not like it would have kept Athena out if she really wanted in, and cracked open the door.

"What is it?" Skyler asked.

"Just got a call from Peace Man. We've got an appointment for lunch at noon tomorrow down in Brooklyn. Place's called Inara Indian Restaurant." Athena said.

"Not like we got any special plans, anyway." Skyler told her.

"Well, we do now." Athena said, "And Peace Man said to pack light. We'll be able to get what we need later."

"Fine, we'll be ready." Skyler told her. He closed and locked the door when she turned to head downstairs.

"What was that all about?" asked Mina as Skyler walked back around their bed.

"Just another job." Skyler said, sitting back down next to her.

They said little more as they went back to watching their trid program. Skyler did some online research on the restaurant while the program played.

It was at about sunset when their black cat came scratching at the door to their porch. Skyler had named him Luther. While Skyler and Mina lay like a pair of spoons in bed, Luther would curl up next to Mina. The cat seemed to have a soothing effect on her, as one night Luther did not sleep at her side was a night filled with nightmares for her.

For their working lunch date that Saturday, packing light for Skyler meant his usual packing of handguns, though he left his sword at home. Though reluctant to come in the first place, Mina was also discretely carrying her Sakura Fubuki, leaving her Cougar Fineblade at home.

Inara Indian Restaurant was in the 400 block of 5th Avenue in Brooklyn, putting it at a bit of an inconvenient spot between the 4th and 7th Avenue metro stations. Skyler's online research about the place and neighborhood turned up the restaurant to be a kind of "locals only" place, and that a local street gang called the Bastard Saints used the place. Though not really easily intimidated by gangs of any type, Skyler did not want to be caught wanting a heavy handgun in case the shit hit the fan.

Walking from the metro to the restaurant was not all that difficult. Nocturne had a knack of unnerving people by his very presence, and he did not even try. Minotaurs, on the other hand, were well known enough by reputation to keep gang members at bay.

If Skyler had not done any research about the Bastard Saints before their lunch date, he would have thought that priests of various metatypes and denominations frequented the restaurant. Seeing obscenities scrawled across their robes was more than enough to shatter that illusion.

"Welcome! Welcome!" cried an Indian dwarf as the five of them came in through the door. "Can I get you anything?"

"We're here to meet with someone." Athena said.

"Ah, yes." the dwarf said, sounding a bit dejected. "This way."

The place smelled of the stale spices of Indian food. They were taken back to the kitchen, and through it to another room that had no door. Only a piece of cloth separated this back room from the kitchen.

To Skyler this was a lot like the smuggler bar Five-By-Five back in Denver, which was a much smaller room directly connected to the kitchen with a curtain for a door. The difference here was that this room was larger, with enough room for everyone if everyone happened to be a troll. There were several chairs surrounding a table, and some of those chairs were more than adequate to support a troll.

Only one other person was there, a large, middle aged human, sitting hunched over with his head in his hands. When he saw them he suddenly sat up, but it was still clear from his wrinkled clothing and disheveled hair and baggy eyes that he had not slept well over the last few days.

"Mr. Johnson?" Athena asked as she sat down first.

"Karl… er, yeah, Mr. Johnson." he said.

"Peace Man said you wanted to talk to someone about work?" Athena asked as everyone else grabbed a chair to sit down. "Well, here we are."

"Yeah." he said, "I need a big score for my construction business."

"Not like we need any kind of home remodeling." Nocturne said.

"KG Construction isn't that kind of a business." the man said. "We do… bigger things."

Skyler created an ARO to do a data search on KG Construction.

Athena cleared her throat.

"Oh, right."

"So, Mr. Johnson, just what exactly are you looking for us to do?" Athena asked.

"Right." Mr. Johnson said, fiddling with his commlink.

Skyler received a transfer of three thousand nuyen.

"I want you to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge." Mr. Johnson told them.

"You want us to what?" asked Nocturne.

"Blow up a bridge." Mr. Johnson repeated. "How comfortable are you with explosives and demolitions?"

"No! No! No!" Mina cried, kicking over her chair as she stood. Before Skyler could try and stop her she was out of the room, and with their private chat disconnected too.

"I've got her." Athena said, standing up, "Cypher, take over."

"Him?" Nocturne asked.

"You heard me." she said as she followed Mina.

"What's wrong with the girl?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"You don't want to know." Skyler said. "So, demolitions." he said.

Roadblock shook his head.

"Never had to learn. I'm more about sneaking around than blowing shit up." Nocturne said.

"Shit, am I gonna have to do everything this time?" Skyler asked.

"Hardly." Nocturne answered.

"So you already know something about demolitions?" Mr. Johnson asked. He sounded skeptical, and maybe now he realized he was talking to someone that looked like a kid.

Skyler saved his research on KG Construction, pushing it aside with a thought as he said, "Not a damn clue without a skillsoft."

"You're also wired?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"You could say that." Skyler replied. Truth was he needed a skillsoft to thread a copy to use himself. "Relax, even if they don't got it I've got the software."

"Good, because I'm concerned because of how much explosives will be needed. It's nothing like firecrackers, either." Mr. Johnson said. "If things don't work out, my excuse about losing them won't work with NYPD Inc. a second time."

"Second time?" Nocturne asked.

"Later." Mr. Johnson said, bringing up an ARO map of the bridge. "Blowing up one of the support caissons would be best. It'll take out the main span and that section to the road as well."

"Looks like you marked the cables at the middle, too." Skyler said.

"That's another option." Mr. Johnson said. "Won't do as much damage to the bridge, but it'll still bring it down."

"So you want us to blow up a caisson or the cables." Nocturne said.

Skyler copied the ARO and saved it to the commlink at his arm.

"Yes, and you can use the explosives at my company." Mr. Johnson said.

"KG Construction." Skyler said.

The ARO of the Brooklyn Bridge was replaced with another that was the floor plan of KG Construction. There were notes on security measures, such as locks and locations of panic buttons. One room in particular was marked in red as "Explosives Storage."

"Once you've got the explosives you can place them whenever is convenient for you. But not until after the next business day."

"Why's that?" asked Nocturne.

"He needs an alibi." Skyler said, "Gotta have a chance to discover the stuff's stolen and report it to NYPD so he's got an excuse why it's missing."

"Right." Nocturne said, nodding his head up and down a little.

"I'm not there Sundays, either." Mr. Johnson said, "So you'll have to wait an extra day."

"But we can use that extra day," Skyler said.

Mina and Athena came back in. Mina looked like she had received the scolding of a lifetime as she kept her gaze to the floor.

"How're we doing?" asked Athena as she reclaimed her chair.

"We've got the details of the job already." Nocturne said, "I think we've just gotta discuss our fee."

"Yes." Mr. Johnson said, "I'll pay you each seven thousand nuyen for the job."

"So it'll be ten thousand total with the retainer you've paid us." Nocturne said.

Skyler shook his head. "If you want all of us it's gonna take a lot more than just that." he said.

"What do you mean by 'all of us'?" Mr. Johnson asked.

Athena shot Skyler an inquisitive look.

"Well, some of us have had, well, let's say bad experiences with doing demo work in the past." Skyler said, "That three grand will do to forget we were even here, but if you want our help it's gonna cost ya." He looked over to Mina before saying, "Thirty-five thousand nuyen."

Surprised, Mina looked up just enough to look at Skyler.

Skyler felt it would take a lot more than a good wad of money to get Mina in on this job. If they were not careful it could mean it was wetwork as well as destruction of city property, and more. He still remembered the promise he made with her: Never again would they accept a wetwork job.

"Holy fuck!" cussed Nocturne.

Mr. Johnson sputtered. "Thirty… five… thousand?" He seemed very desperate, even with the shock at being asked for so much money.

"Shit." Athena said softly.

Once Mr. Johnson managed to regain some composure, he asked, "Just what makes you think you're so qualified to be asking for so much?"

Skyler glanced around at the others. They all seemed quite interested in what he might say.

Resting his elbows on the table, leaning forward and bringing his hands together like a criminal mastermind, Skyler said, "Because we could hit your biz tonight, and even if you had the best matrix security ever there'd be no digital evidence that there was ever a break in until someone actually walked into that storeroom and noticed stuff was gone. And it'll be the same when we hit the target."

Mr. Johnson swallowed.

"Seriously, he's that good." Athena said.

Roadblock nodded vigorously. Skyler was not sure how the minotaur would know, beyond whatever they may have spoken about in the past.

"But I'm still concerned about…" Mr. Johnson started to say.

"Boy's not the only one who can chip a skillsoft." Nocturne said, "As long as it wasn't personalized for him we can use whatever skillsofts he's got."

Roadblock nodded again.

"Thirty-five's a bit much." Mr. Johnson said.

"And that's not counting the three thousand you've given us already." Skyler added. "Look, if it's too much, how 'bout thirty thousand instead?"

Mr. Johnson seemed to get the idea that the fee was negotiable. "Fifteen thousand, with an extra six thousand if you take out a caisson."

Skyler looked over to Mina, but she did not look up from the floor.

"What about collateral damage?" Athena asked.

Mr. Johnson looked down. "I knew going in that people might die. I don't want… It… It doesn't matter, the bridge must fall."

"So it'll be okay if we do what we can to limit casualties," Athena said. "just as long as the bridge comes down."

Mr. Johnson nodded.

Mina glanced over to Skyler, just barely nodding.

"Alright, fifteen with the bonus six for a caisson." Skyler said.

"Right, so when can you begin?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"We already have." Athena answered as Skyler and the others stood. "Best you don't know when we do anything."

Something felt different to Skyler just outside of the restaurant as Athena and Mr. Johnson spoke.

"Is this normal?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"The less you know…" Athena said.

"We gotta go, now!" Skyler butted in. He grabbed Mina's hand as he went for the door. He had it figured what felt different, an increase in WiFi activity outside. And on top of that the signals were heavily encrypted.

"What is it?" asked Athena.

"Raid!"

"Shit."

Several officers of NYPD Inc. were rushing into the restaurant. Three were quick to gang up on one member of the Bastard Saints by tackling him, the gang member screaming out in pain as two of them jammed their knees into his sides.

"Just break for it. Meet up at home." Athena said.

With a thought Skyler's commlinks were off as he and Mina tried slipping along the walls.

"You two, halt!" an officer yelled.

The typical citizen that had done nothing wrong would have done as the officer said. The innocent citizen who is scared shitless, and likely anyone guilty, would run instead. With a hard grip on her hand, Skyler opted to run.

The officer tried to intercept them, and just as he got in the way he received Skyler's knee to the crotch. For a moment it looked like he had not even seen the attack coming. Not putting much thought into it, Skyler and Mina ran.

Getting out had turned out to be easy, but crossing Fifth Avenue was almost fatal as a sedan did not even slow down for them as they crossed. A block down Twelfth Street and another up Fourth Skyler figured they were not being followed. He had lost their network at the restaurant from the noise of closer wireless devices, so he had no idea what was happening there.

In an alley between two buildings between Tenth and Eleventh streets they stopped to catch their breaths.

"Do we have to go home now?" Mina asked, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"Why?" Skyler asked.

"There's someplace I wanna go."

"Sure, I guess."

That someplace had turned out to be Central Park. They had been in New York City for almost two months and, among other places, they had never actually been there. Part of the reason why was likely the omnipresent overwatch of security cameras and drones all over Manhattan, and Central Park was no exception. So the others would not worry, Skyler fired off a text to Athena saying they were alright but would be home later.

Central Park was the most well known place in Manhattan that was not lifted back up after the 2005 quake. Buildings within the park that had not survived the quake had been rebuilt, some of them altered because they were now against a five meter tall wall that surrounded the park.

The transverses that once existed were also rebuilt as elevated roadways over the park instead of through it. The advantage was that they could stay open around the clock to let traffic through, instead of being cut off at night. As a result it was much easier to keep vehicles out of the park, with the only legal transportation within the park being horse drawn carriages. Even bicycles were now illegal to ride in the park.

Maintenance of Central Park was in the hands of Shiawase, and they had done a lot of work to keep the natural looking sculpted beauty the park invoked almost a century ago. As a major tourist attraction for Manhattan, the corporation had also managed to keep it open for anyone with any kind of non-black pass, as opposed to crossing Fifth Avenue into the Upper Eastside, which was so tight on security that anyone without a white or a blue/white pass would be arrested for trespassing.

Their first stop was at the obelisk behind the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, known as Cleopatra's Needle by some. Now the twenty-four meter tall obelisk was an astral phenomenon, influencing mana around it for about twenty meters. To Skyler it was a really old block of carved stone, and being close to it really did not feel any different to him than when they were walking up to it.

Mina, close at his side right now, had read about this and wanted to experience it herself. After walking around it a few times, with Skyler helping guide her, they moved on deeper into the park.

Not far was Turtle Pond, and at the east side of the pond they found a quiet place to comfortably sit for a while.

"_Bet you're wondering… about…_" Mina silently said.

"_Why you agreed to the job, yeah._" Skyler told her.

"_Something Athena told me. Said that we could do something to limit how many are hurt. And that if we didn't do it, he could end up hiring someone else that might not care._"

"_I'm sure we'll have to check the place out first. Can figure stuff out then, when to blow it up, and how to get people off it first._"

Apparently feeling better, she kissed him. But it did not quite end there with a single kiss. After several more kisses, with growing intensity, they decided it might be better to head home. That trip ended up being a little roundabout, with a carriage ride once around the park first.

It was late when they finally got home, each with a plastic sack of takeout food.

"Took your time getting here." scolded Athena as they walked through the living room.

"Didn't wanna lead anyone here." Skyler said.

"Well, eat up and try to get a nap 'cause we're going out late tonight." Athena told them.

"Where're the guys at?" asked Mina as Skyler began going up the stairs.

"They were here earlier, but now I'm not sure." Athena answered, "Nocturne's assured me they'll meet up with us later."

The two ate, relaxed, showered, but did not exactly try to take a nap. When it came time for them to go, Mina used a spell to help keep the both of them awake.

Late that evening they left, with Skyler and Mina sharing the passenger seat of Athena's Westwind 3K.

"So what's the plan?" asked Skyler.

"I'm gonna drop you two off near this side of the Brooklyn Bridge so you can scope it out." Athena said. "While you're doing that, me and the guys're gonna hit up KG Construction for the explosives, and you're gonna be giving us matrix backup."

"You want him to check out the bridge, and hack?" Mina asked.

"Don't play dumb, we know he can do it." Athena said.

"It's alright." Skyler added. "Not like juggling two or three things is all that hard for me."

"Ever tried pushing yourself?" Athena asked.

"Five, maybe six at once." Skyler said, figuring what Athena wanted to know.

"Not bad."

"And you're not even asking me how I'm gonna find KG Construction's node." Skyler said.

"Figured you'd've either done it by now, or that you'd have a way."

Skyler had thought that they would be raiding KG Construction Saturday night instead, and was going to break into the company's network then. This time around he hacked into Athena's public commlink so he could use it to monitor what nodes were close to it.

They were dropped off several blocks away from the Brooklyn Bridge. Together they walked to a park that was just upriver from the bridge to just look at it. At the same time Skyler waited for Athena to reach KG Construction, the signal to her commlink already jumping through several other nodes through the city's network.

"Not many boats at night." Mina said, looking more out at the East River than at the bridge. "If it's timed right then there won't be any hit."

"Easy enough to do that." Skyler said, finding the KG Construction node now. After a quick scan to see just what he was up against, and finding no traps or encryption running, Skyler was more than easily in. In fact, the node was so out of date on security that the first blow of a brute force attack landed him inside the network.

After rummaging around to see what was available, which included accounting ledgers that were an utter shambles, he messaged back to Athena that what meager security measures that existed were neutralized. All this entailed was the neutralization of a single working PanicButton. There were no cameras or hidden nodes that he could find, and when asked Athena messaged back that they could not see any kind of security cameras either. She figured that she and Nocturne could handle what locks they could see.

After a while Skyler and Mina walked under the Brooklyn Bridge, as near to the caisson as they could get, and to another park that was just downriver. At the same time, while checking things out and monitoring the KG Construction network for anything unusual, Skyler found another network nearby that he felt might be interesting.

"Nice view, isn't it?" a man asked them as he stepped into view.

Skyler's sensor software identified it as the voice of their NYPD Inc. contact, the man who had delivered the little knick knacks in return for small tasks to be carried out.

"It's alright." Skyler said. The network he found, after a little bit of work decrypting it, was the NYPD Inc. security officers patrolling the bridge. "Better than what Robert B.'s got right now."

"So what do you want?" asked Mina.

"Well, I was told that encrypted messages and spirit couriers was a little impersonal." the man said, "So when I got wind you were here…"

"You decided to ask us a favor in person." Skyler finished. "Glad to know you held up your side of our deal last time."

Mina shot him a look. That reminded Skyler that he had yet to tell her about throwing Robert Breham to the wolves of NYPD Inc.

"You two are a little difficult to track down, you know." the man said.

"Apparently not hard enough." muttered Mina.

"Right, so what's the deal?" asked Skyler as he listened to the occasional chatter of the officers on the bridge. There was no central node, and he could tell that if he wanted mastery of that particular network he would have to hack at least a dozen commlinks. Something he might be close to pulling off if he had nothing else to do in the real world at the same time.

"Considering who I'm asking, it shouldn't be hard at all." the man said, "We'd just like to know what Mr. Johnson's real identity, motives, and connections are."

"Is that all?" asked Mina.

"Well, it'll be best if you can do it without getting arrested."

"Goes without saying." Skyler said.

"Well, don't stay out too long. It's well past curfew for you two." the man told them, walking off.

"_What was that about 'your side of our deal'?_" Mina silently asked.

"_I did a deep data dive after we nearly got blown up on the last job._" Skyler told her, "_Found data connecting Old Mr. Johnson to Klubbs's murder and the bombs and stuff. Gave him a copy to pass to the investigators. Told him if he didn't do it we were through with our affiliation with NYPD Inc._"

Remembering that Mr. Johnson had slipped a little and said his name was Karl, Skyler focused more on the KG Construction node. He found that the only two employees remaining were Karl Gahley and Jeff Anderson, and he had images of both. Turned out Karl Gahley was not only their Mr. Johnson, but also really was the owner of the business.

"_You think we're that valuable to them?_" Mina asked.

"_At least enough to get that old asshole in jail._"

With not much else to do, aside from watching the glow of headlights and tail lights as cars went back and forth along the bridge, Skyler skimmed through the rest of the node. The state of the ledgers would make any novice accountant think that there was some kind of embezzling going on, but with the lack of recent activity for at least three months, and a low balance for the business, Skyler did not think so. It just looked like whoever was managing the books was really bad at it.

Jeff it seemed was also hardly at the business, with virtually no recent activity to his login profile. Karl, on the other hand, was there quite frequently. Skyler even found a few unsent messages, one of them written weeks ago to a Roger Anderson. It contained a request for aid in getting the contract to rebuild the recently destroyed Brooklyn Bridge.

That unsent message, along with the files on Karl and Jeff, was uploaded to the commlink built into Skyler's fake cybernetic arm.

"I think I already got his request done." Skyler told Mina.

"Bet it's money." Mina said.

"Yeah, it is."

"It's always money."

It was not long until Skyler got a message from Athena saying that they were done at KG Construction. Skyler started cleaning up after himself from that node and replied back for her to pick them up at the intersection of Columbia Heights and Cranberry Street, near the Brooklyn Bridge. Ten minutes later he was done with the KG Construction node, and they were crammed in her car and on their way home.

Roadblock and Nocturne were already at the brownstone by the time they got there. Roadblock dominated a chair by himself, and Nocturne was walking through the dining room just as the three were coming in through the front door.

"So, what do we know?" Nocturne asked as Skyler and Mina dropped onto a couch.

"Mr. Johnson owns KG Construction and is married to the brother of a Brooklyn city council member that got that job by parading his sick brother in the trideos." Skyler said.

Roadblock whistled.

"You forgot that KG Construction's just about out of business." Nocturne said.

"No, I figured you'd find that out when you went to rob the place." Skyler returned. "Two guys on payroll and one of 'em actually going to work? Even if Mr. Johnson gets the rebuilding contract he's gonna have to hire a workforce."

"He's got some drones, though, so maybe not as many as you think." Nocturne said.

"So what've we got for ideas?" Athena asked.

"I'll want a day to watch the bridge, but I think traffic's lighter at night so it'll be better then." Skyler said.

"There's a few spirits patrolling, 'bout as powerful as what I can conjure without hurting myself." Mina said.

"And about a dozen drones, Doberman and Rotos mixed, patrolling about the Brooklyn caisson." Skyler added. "I'd expect the same on the other side, too. Oh, and there's no central node for the security on the bridge. They're using an encrypted mesh network to communicate."

"So after watching the place, which do you think will be easier to take out?" Athena asked.

"Probably the Brooklyn caisson." Skyler said, "I heard about half a dozen pairs of officers patrolling the bridge, I'm pretty sure if we tried for the cables we'd get stopped and questioned."

"Why not both?" asked Athena.

"What?" Nocturne asked.

"Well, here's what I'm thinking." Athena said, "If we're gonna pull this off we need the kids' help, and we've got that as long as we're not trying to kill anyone with this job."

"We're bringing down a bridge, how're we not gonna kill people?" Nocturne asked.

"We can try to limit casualties." Athena countered. "Cypher and I can tap into the networks there and get a gauge on traffic and plan the bombing when it's about as light as it'll get. We've got remote detonators for the explosives, so we can set off which ones we want. We blow a few cables first to start a panic, get the people off the bridge and EMS on the way, and before EMS gets there we blow the rest."

"Okay." Mina said.

"Be so much easier if we just blew things up." Nocturne said.

Mina was about to stand, but Athena stopped her. "Do you have any idea how much harder it'll be without them?"

"Gotta pop their wetwork cherries sometime. Besides, I've seen them fight, and they're both vicious."

"Oh shut the fuck up." Skyler said. "We may have just witnessed a wetwork job last year, but I did one months before that. Doesn't mean we have to do more now."

"You, wetwork? You're twelve, what'd you get paid to kill, an alley cat?" Nocturne asked.

Skyler sighed. "Try Wapasha Blackwolf, Chief Financial Officer and Chairman Of The Board of Xeverus Cosmetics Research in Denver." he said.

"Hey, I remember reading about that guy." Athena said, "But he died of natural causes…"

"In his sleep, in a lodge out in the middle of nowhere in the PCC." Skyler finished. "You know, a dose of breathtaker can be fatal when you're over three thousand meters above sea level." He honestly had no idea what drug or toxin was actually used, but when one medical report suggested the cause of death was asphyxiation he guessed that some form of the crowd control gas could have been used. "As far as I know no one found the laser pinhole my drone used to plug into their otherwise isolated network there."

"You've got a laser on that fly-spy?" Nocturne asked in disbelief.

Digging into his pocket, Skyler pulled out the yokujin drone Laserbeak. "No, I used this guy." he said, waking the tiny drone and flying it over to Nocturne. "It's got a mini laser to burn holes in things, and micro tapper gear so I can connect to those things through it."

He recalled the drone just as Nocturne reached for it.

"So they've got some ethics." Athena said, "And we can do the job. On top of that, the way we're gonna do it will land us an extra six grand."

"So when're we gonna do this?" Nocturne asked.

Athena's commlink chimed with an incoming call. "Who the hell is calling?" she asked, answering the call. "Hello?"

"Hello." came a woman's voice, "My name is not important, but you can call me Ms. Johnson. I am concerned about your recent activities. I fear your bright future may be cut short without my help. We should meet. When and where's convenient for you?"

"There's a place called the Twilight Café at Church and Reade." Athena said. "Noon."

"It's a date." the woman said, ending the call.

"You normally make lunch dates that easily?" Skyler asked.

Ignoring the question, Athena said, "Well, I was gonna say that maybe we do this Saturday night, figuring you'd be able to get recordings to check for the good timing."

"So we wait an extra day to see what this Ms. Johnson wants?" Nocturne asked.

"I don't like it." Mina said.

"Yeah, it stinks to me too." Skyler added.

"You don't have to like it. But we're not gonna do this if we're gonna be caught with our asses hanging out." Athena said.

"We've got connections. We can disappear." Skyler told her.

"Well, if we're gonna wait on some research and a meeting with a mysterious woman, I'm gonna go home and meet you there tomorrow." Nocturne said as he headed towards the front door.

"Well, if that's gonna be it, then I'm gonna go to bed." Skyler said as he stood up.

Luther was waiting for him, lightly scratching at the door. Skyler cracked the door open just enough for the black cat to slip in. He meowed softly as he strode in, rubbing against Skyler's right ankle.

The cat hopped up on their bed, such as it was, and curled up while Skyler stripped off most of his clothes. He was down to peeling off his form fitting body armor when Mina came in. She had a glass in each hand and was drinking from one of them.

"Athena says we still gotta go to the lunch date tomorrow." Mina told him. "And she said that the place's low class enough you can come armed."

Skyler accepted her other drink, saying, "Shit, was hoping I'd have to miss it." It was a chocolate shake, nicely chilled and just a little thick as he took a drink.

"So what're you gonna do?" Mina asked as she sat down next to Luther. The cat looked up at her briefly when she started petting him, yawning once before he tucked his head back down.

"Hack her 'link and all that shit. I wanna know who she is and all that before we try dealin' with her."

"I'll have Azkaellon close to me, just in case."

Skyler smiled a little. The air elemental Mina had bound to her was probably the least offensive of any of her spirits. What it lacked in raw fighting potential it made up for with an unusual penchant for just fucking with people. More often than not it helped hide them from others.

"And the bridge?" Mina asked.

"Yeah, right." Skyler said, almost forgetting about what he was going to do. He logged into the New York City traffic networks and looked up the last twenty hours of trideo recorded on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges for all of the traffic, including what went under them on the East River, and saved it all to the commlink in his cybernetic arm casing. He also set the commlink to record those same feeds.

Extending his mind into the virtual world, Skyler mentally reached into the digital void to compile a data sprite. Like it was passing through a veil came a floating human skull with now jawbone, cameras for eyes, and a twirling tangle of six mechadendrite cables. He fed it the passcodes to the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm and tasked it to finding recordings of any and all traffic cameras for the same three bridges for the last twenty-four hours and save the data to that commlink.

"There. Will have it by morning and I'll check it then." Skyler said, sending the command to his arm to unlock so he could slide it off.

After taking off most of her clothes they buried themselves together under their blankets.

Skyler was almost asleep when Mina spoke.

"I had a thought about helping on the bridge." she said softly.

"We'll talk in the morning." Skyler told her, running a hand along her side.

Morning came early for them, with Luther scratching at the door at a little after six to be let out. Half awake, Skyler watched Mina get up to let out the cat, and then sleepily trudge back to bed with him. Rather than spooning up to him she pressed in close in a honeymooner's hug, quickly falling fast asleep again.

Skyler woke again much later. He was on his back, but Mina was still snuggled up close with her arm across his chest.

"Don't move." Athena told him in a hushed tone. She was sitting near the foot of their bed, a finger waving in the air as she worked with a private ARO.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Skyler yelled.

This woke Mina, and when she saw Athena she shrieked. Finding that they were not completely covered by any blankets she grabbed what she could to cover herself up.

"Shit! Calm down!" Athena told them.

"Get out!" Mina shrieked.

Not caring if Athena saw him in his underwear, Skyler rolled over the side of his bed to dig through his clothes for one of his pistols.

"Alright! Alright!" Athena told them, quickly leaving. She was less than quiet about closing the door behind her.

Skyler was quick to go to their bedroom door and locked it.

"What the hell was with her?" Skyler asked. Turning back he saw Mina was still on their bed, clutching their blanket to her chest.

Right away he was at her side. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her.

Mina looked like she was about to burst into tears. When she looked up at him she let go of the blanket to latch onto him in a very tight hug.

Not quite sure of what to do Skyler simply hugged her back, feeling how warm she was against his skin.

After a minute or two Mina finally broke the silence. "Sorry." she said softly.

"Hey, I didn't think we needed to lock that door either." Skyler told her.

"Think your sister could send that drone of yours here?" Mina asked.

"Which one?" Skyler asked back. There were eight Doberman and Soldat model security drones back in Denver, five of them armed with a light machinegun, and two of those had an underslung grenade launcher as well.

"Ravage." Mina told him.

_Of course she'd name that one_, thought Skyler.

Ravage was effectively the pack leader of his larger drones. UCAS military surplus, Skyler had managed to get it at an unsanctioned weapons market in Denver, along with a heavier turret to hold the heavy and modified Stoner-Ares M107 heavy machinegun.

"Maybe I'll just threaten Athena with Ravage first." Skyler said.

This brought a brief smile to Mina's face, just before she finally looked up to him.

A while later they went downstairs to get brunch. Athena was in the kitchen, sipping a soykaf and looking out the sliding glass door to their small back yard.

"Hey, look, I wanna say I'm sorry." Athena told them as Skyler entered what he wanted into the SPU.

"Just 'cause we're older than we look doesn't mean you can do shit like that." Skyler replied. "Shit, even if we looked our age you still couldn't do shit like that without asking."

As the SPU processed Skyler's request, Athena said, "Maybe I should've asked first, and I'm sorry. Just that when I tried to get you for breakfast, and your door was open…"

"Our door was open?" Mina asked.

"Just a little." Athena told them, "All I did was push and the door opened."

Skyler collected his food, a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with a short glass of pear juice, and went to the table to sit down, purposely choosing the far side from Athena.

"Anyway," Athena continued, "when I saw you two lying there together, you just looked too cute to pass up."

"That's… disturbing." Mina said.

"Just what the hell were you doing anyway?" Skyler asked between bites of his sandwich.

"I do sketches, as a hobby." Athena said, "And sometimes I do people, too. Here's what I was working on when you woke up."

An ARO appeared, a simple two-dimensional image in black and white. Aside from being purely digital it looked like it was a graphite portrait of Skyler and Mina asleep. Athena had made no effort to hide the fact that the two were at least half naked as they slept, with Skyler on his back and Mina embracing him like she often did. The only change that Athena had apparently made was to make Mina's hair much longer so she did not look like a boy.

Skyler had to admit that the drawing was very good, rather realistic and lifelike. Still their apparent age was problematic even though Mina's back was towards the viewer.

"You draw stuff like this a lot?" Skyler asked, though he was not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"The body's a lot more beautiful than people want to believe." Athena said, "And yes, nudes, half nudes, and such. Nothing pornographic, though."

"It's nice, but I wish you hadn't done that." Mina said as she sat down.

"Sorry, it's a bad habit of mine." Athena said, "If I see someone I want to sketch I usually just take a pic of them instead, and then use that trid image for inspiration. Maybe you two would like to pose for something I'd like to draw sometime?"

"I… I don't know." Mina said, blushing.

Skyler shook his head as he ate.

The ARO disappeared. "Yeah, I guess it's a bit much for me to ask you two to do something like this." Athena said.

"More than a bit perverted, too." Skyler said.

"Here." Athena said, slipping a data chip out of her commlink and sliding it to them.

"What's this?" asked Skyler as he picked up the chip.

"The only copies of all the pics and sketches I've done of you two since we met." Athena told them. "Do what you will with them." Then she stood and left to go upstairs.

"Here." Mina said, pulling out her Hermes Ikon.

"You really wanna see what's on it?" Skyler asked, slowly sliding her commlink over.

"I don't know." Mina said softly, "Part of me wants to see, but part of me doesn't want to know."

"I'll look first." Skyler said, slotting the chip as he connected his mind to her commlink.

The contents of the data chip were split into two folders, 'Pictures' and 'Sketches.' There were several images on the data chip, and most of them were images taken from Athena's point of view. The rest, of which were only four, were all the same style of black and white graphite sketches. All were just as good, but only one he had already seen was of them sleeping together. One image was of Skyler alone, one of Mina, and the last was of the two of them together on the couch watching a trideo program.

"I think you'll wanna look." Skyler said. "She's done a few drawings, and they're all good."

Mina took a deep breath before she opened up the images on the data chip. He said nothing as he watched her flip through the sketches Athena had done.

"They are good." she said softly as she flipped through the sketches. "I wish I knew she did these sooner."

"Not that it'd make it okay that she sketched us in our sleep like this."

For the short term Skyler opted to keep the images, moving and encrypting the data to one of the chips inside of his fake cybernetic hand.

Up until it was time to leave for their lunch date, Athena kept her distance from them. Even afterwards she was a little more aloof around them.

The Twilight Café was close to The Towers, and actually a few blocks away from the Corson Place Hotel. Skyler and Mina opted to leave their blades behind, but carried their pistols.

The metro ride was relatively straight forward, having no transfers from the brownstone to the station that was literally on the other side of the skyraker where the café was. Nocturne had even managed to catch the same train with them.

The Twilight Café was a nice place, and for a moment Skyler was feeling a little underdressed. When he noticed a small group wearing worse clothing than him, mismatched t-shirts and slightly torn jeans, he felt better about his techno styled attire.

The place was nothing exceptional in concept. What it made up for from its simplicity was a charming atmosphere and the great smells of real food being cooked and served, a mix of various styles of beef, chicken, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables, and more.

"There she is." Athena said, heading straight for a booth where a very attractive woman was sitting. She was wearing a simple Zoé skirt and blouse in orange colors, her dark hair tied back in a loose and simple ponytail. The displayed name of her ID said Phoebe Sauvageon.

"Ms. Johnson, I presume?" Athena asked.

"Ah, yes. Please, sit." Phoebe told them. "And order whatever you'd like, it's on me."

Skyler isolated Phoebe's commlink, a Transys Avalon running Novatech Navi, scanned it for any traps or encryption, and soon went straight to forcing his way through its firewall. At the same time he also ordered lunch, and with real food on their menu he went all out with a double bacon cheese burger with all the fixings, spiced cheese fries, and a large chocolate shake.

"So, I understand some of you are new to the area?" Phoebe asked.

Skyler had just submitted his order, closing out the ARO as he said, "I guess, I mean we've been here for almost two months now." It did not take much to get into her commlink.

"Oh, you?"

"Yes, us." Mina corrected.

"I bet the big city's quite different from home." Phoebe said.

"Kinda." Mina said.

"Not really." Skyler said as he started looking up what he could about Phoebe.

Phoebe gave him an inquisitive look.

"We're here from Denver, so some things ain't all that new to us." Skyler said, "And we've been around. New York ain't even the second big city we've been in."

"Big words for someone so young." Phoebe commented.

"Hey, he's far from unskilled." Athena said.

Roadblock nodded knowingly.

"But how experienced are they?" Phoebe asked, "I was told to expect some younger looking people with your group, but I honestly wasn't expecting children."

Mina and Skyler groaned.

"People in our line of work gotta start sometime." Nocturne said.

"I wasn't much older when I cut my teeth, either." Athena added.

"Yes, but this isn't a game." Phoebe said, "It's more than just slipping a drone in the boy's locker room. Word gets around that you're working with kids and it'll…" She stopped when her commlink started ringing. By the time she pulled it out of her pocket the display background had been replaced with Skyler's winged sword signature icon.

"Very cute, missy." Phoebe said sternly, tossing her still ringing commlink onto the table. "That's enough fun and games."

"Me?" Mina asked, intentionally feigning innocence rather badly.

"Yes, you." Phoebe growled, "I want you to stop messing with my 'link."

Skyler killed the music and switched it over to vibrate mode. The commlink buzzed loudly as it slowly started working its own way towards the edge of the table.

"Hey, I ain't doin' shit to it." Mina said. "If I was, it'd be a melted pile of crap."

"I was warned about you, Cypher…" Phoebe said.

Skyler raised a hand. "Um, I'm Cypher." he said.

"No, she's Cypher." Phoebe said. She grabbed her commlink and held it up.

Before Phoebe could say more, Skyler said, "Yeah, that's my signature there. So I let her wear it on her necklace." Actually, Mina had requested the custom made power focus without consulting him. They were already close then so he had decided not to say anything about it.

With a thought Skyler changed the background image back to the previous picture, and stopped it from vibrating like a mad sex toy.

"He's Cypher?" Phoebe asked.

"I really hope you're quick to get it." Mina said. "Last person that insisted I was him I burned."

"She'll do it, too. Honest." Skyler said like it was nothing.

Phoebe pocketed her commlink.

"So, mind telling us…" Athena started to say. She stopped when their food arrived.

Mina must have been hungry as well, having ordered the same thing Skyler had, save that her milkshake was strawberry and loaded with bits of real fruit.

"What I want with you?" Phoebe asked as she delicately took a bit of her own salad. "Simple. Aztechnology has been watching you since we learned about a lot of people asking about a particular thing. We also know about Karl, his husband, and their dying business. Despite everything, we want to see the thing demolished too, but we're not wanting to kill people and endanger the city to get it done."

Skyler nearly gagged on the mouthful of hamburger. After managing to swallow without choking himself, he said, "Bullshit." He really did not care that his sensor software had said Phoebe was speaking honestly. She may have believed whole heartily what she said, even if it was a lie.

"And may I ask how you know so well?" Phoebe asked, her fork clanking on her plate.

"Past dealings with Azzies." Skyler said.

"All wanting us dead." Mina added.

"Name one." Phoebe challenged.

"How 'bout the Smoking Mirror cult?" Skyler said.

"One example from a group of Aztlan sponsored mages…" Phoebe started to say.

"Doesn't mean shit. Sure, whatever they want you to think." Skyler said.

"Can we get on with what you want from us?" Athena asked.

"First, I'm not asking you to stop your job." Phoebe told them, "It will actually be beneficial to Aztechnology if you carry it out."

"But if Aztechnology's named in this, it's bad PR." Athena said. "What is there connecting you in on our job in the first place?"

Skyler pondered this a little as he continued eating his burger.

"Nothing you need to worry yourselves over." Phoebe said, "What you should worry about is what law enforcement is going to do when they find out. Your boss is no hardened criminal, and will almost certainly roll over on you for a lesser sentence."

Skyler swallowed before saying, "You want us to be a little sloppy to frame him up."

"You're a bright boy." Phoebe said. The way she said it actually felt condescending to Skyler. For a moment he wondered if she would have said the same thing the same way if she knew he was about twice as old as he looked.

"Really? You want us to ensure his connection to the job?" Athena said.

"If you do, we'll ensure that your names are left out of any investigations," Phoebe told them, "and you'll receive a fat bonus for it too."

"A big fat bonus." Skyler said, "Sounds like a big fat deal."

"We ain't gonna do a shitty job, either." Mina added.

"There's more to it than just money, kids." Phoebe said, "Without corporate sponsorship you won't be doing biz on the island, and you'll be scrapping with the SINless for pocket change."

"Or we'll just go back to Seattle and play with the big boys." Skyler said, pushing his chair back as he stood, "Again."

Mina was right beside him.

"It'll be unwise to turn this down." Phoebe said.

"They can do it if they want." Skyler said, turning to leave.

"Just count us out." Mina added.

Together the two left the café.

"_You really think she's serious?_" Mina silently asked.

"_Bet that's what she thinks._" Skyler said as walked to the metro station. "_I wonder if Ghostwalker would let us say in Denver if the Azzies get really pissed at us._"

"_Bet he would if we did something to really piss them off a lot._"

They did not take the metro straight home, but instead took one line to Brooklyn, switched to a second line to get up into Queens, and then a third to get close to home again.

Along the way they got messages from Ares, Horizon, Renraku, and Spinrad, each of them with their own little requests. Some of these Skyler received as an encrypted message, while Mina received one by delivery from a watcher spirit. Their Ares affiliate requested that the Neo-Anarchists be linked to the bombings, Horizon wanted footage of the bridge's collapse, and Renraku wanted all of the roto-drones taken out.

They both wondered just who did not know about the eventual destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Skyler wondered how much the big players knew about all of the jobs in the shadows. While figuring they would just not do anything to blame the Neo-Anarchists for the bombing, Skyler was already thinking on how he could get Horizon's and Renraku's requests completed.

Skyler and Mina were talking about what she had in mind about helping lighten traffic on the bridge when Athena and the others arrived. Roadblock had a parcel of some kind under one arm.

"Hey, she was not happy." Athena said when she saw them in the living room.

"Should I care?" Skyler asked.

"Just how much do you care about a Johnson fucking us over?" asked Nocturne.

"If Karl decides to roll on us, yes, you should care." Athena added.

"Tell them about Irina." Mina said.

"Who?" Athena asked.

"We did a job for a Vory princess, Irina Klavikova." Skyler said, "When we delivered she paid us, then she tried to kill us before we left. I took a hit to the chest, but my body armor took the brunt of it. Laying on my back I almost capped her in the head with one of my Predators."

"The bitch shot me in the back." Mina added scornfully. "I wish he'd gotten her."

"How badly did you miss?" asked Nocturne with a condescending edge in his voice.

"Tore the top half of her right ear off." Skyler answered.

"Yeah, I… oh."

"And she never came back at you for that?" Athena asked.

"Do I look like I was crapped from a ghoul's ass?"

"Point taken." Athena said. "So what were you two doing here anyway?" asked Athena as she took a chair to sit down.

"Figuring a way to try and stop traffic at the bridge before we blow it up." Skyler said.

"We were thinking that I could have a spirit cause a traffic accident on both sides." Mina told them.

"Then when traffic's lightened up we'll pop some bombs at the cables to get everyone else runnin' off the bridge." Skyler finished.

"You know that still could kill someone." Nocturne said.

"Maybe." Skyler said.

"Not like if we did it during rush hour." Mina added.

"Could you chill on that, Nocturne?" Athena asked. "So I take it then that you're thinking the three of us will hit the caisson while you two do the cables?"

"Pretty much."

"Can you two be ready to do it tonight?" Athena asked.

"I don't think we've got anything we need to do." Mina said.

"Good, 'cause you can help Roadblock prep the bombs." Athena told them.

The parcel Roadblock had turned out to be a vacuum sealing kit. That, and a low intensity laser to clean the packaging once the explosive was sealed inside, would help keep any sensors from sniffing them out. The detonators would be carried separately, being jammed into an explosive charge once it had been set into place.

Skyler also hoped that he would be able to mess with whatever sensors were being used. He never worried about chemsniffers picking up the mess of ammo he carried since he had licenses to carry his handguns concealed, but carrying three kilograms of high explosives was sure to set off even the most basic of scanners no matter how well sealed they were.

Sealing up the explosives had taken less time than expected, so the three tuned into a hockey game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers. While Skyler and Mina were not very into sports as much as Roadblock was, they still cheered the New York team on.

Nocturne was still there for dinner, which was a simple batch of soy-burgers and fries. There Athena laid out the plan where she would take Skyler and Mina in her car down near to the Brooklyn side of the bridge's promenade where they would walk to somewhere in the middle to plant the bombs while she would meet up with Roadblock and Nocturne. Together the three would use some data she managed to get after hacking into the Brooklyn Department of Public Works to do the real job at the caisson.

Their timing on detonating the explosives was based on when the bombs went off on the bridge. After the fourth explosion had gone off Athena would wait about five to ten minutes before triggering the explosives planted at the caisson. And if for some reason that Skyler or Mina failed in their part then she would trigger the caisson's bomb sometime after three o'clock anyway.

After dinner both Skyler and Mina were invited to join an online multiplayer battle arena game with some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Skyler was much more eager to join up, though Mina opted to just sit back and watch the games instead.

Despite never really having ever trained in using any kind of weapon like a rifle he seemed to do rather well in sniping other players, with the in-game engine making up for his lack of real world skill. Still it was not quite as satisfying as the assassin he played in a different game his sister had introduced him to last year.

It was well past curfew when Athena dropped Skyler and Mina off a few blocks south of the bridge on Cadman Plaza. From there the two walked north to the bridge.

"_You sure this's a good idea?_" Mina silently asked as they climbed the stairs up to the promenade.

"_Was it ever a good idea?_" Skyler asked back.

It really was not their first time being involved in any kind of demolition, though the last time had proved a bit spontaneous. There had been mixed reports on casualties on the casino they had set fire to, Skyler had found out, but the media usually glazed over the loss of life when it came to the SINless.

Pedestrian traffic was light at the late hour. While it meant that casualties would be light, it did mean that there was no press of people to get lost in and the guards at the security checkpoint would spot them quite easily. Well, impossible since everyone had to have their I.D. broadcasting, just like in Manhattan.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" asked one of the numerous officers as they got to the security checkpoint on the Brooklyn side.

The wireless signals were heavy here, but Skyler did manage to identify the scanner hardware they had. Finding which one was a chemical sniffer was not too hard when even the officers had to have everything wireless broadcasting its presence. Maybe it made the wage slaves feel safer knowing those scanners were there, too.

"Yeah, but we don't have a choice." Mina said, doing her best to sound tired.

"Our dad dropped us off to go to some bar." Skyler said with a heavy sigh, "We gotta walk home."

"'Cording to this your home's up in Queens." another officer said. "This way's to Manhattan."

"That's my mom's place." Mina said.

"We're going to my mom's place." Skyler added, slipping his mind into the chemsniffer.

"Wait, what?" the first officer asked.

"See, my mom married her dad, and she lives in the Pit. That's where we're going." Skyler told them.

"And my mom's place is farther, and we don't have any money or a metro pass." Mina added.

The chemsniffer picked up the ammo and explosives, but Skyler was quick enough to edit out the explosives from its memory.

"So what happened to your money?" the second officer asked.

"Dad took it." Skyler said, sounding dejected. "Said he'd pay me back, but he never does."

"Please, can we just go?" pleaded Mina. "His mom's place isn't too far. We'll go straight there, promise!"

"Alright." the first officer said, sighing.

They were let through the checkpoint, and together they walked on a little slower than normal for as long as they could tell everyone at the checkpoint was watching them.

"_They called ahead about us._" Skyler silently told Mina as they walked. The mesh network used for security on the bridge was still encrypted, but the security key had not changed since he had last figured it out.

"_What'd they say?_" Mina asked.

A pair of security officers rolled up to them from the other direction, one of them nodding to them as they rolled on by.

"_Just that we're okay and stuff._" Skyler said, letting a smile cross his face.

After a while Mina broke the silence. "_I called up a water spirit to cause a few accidents. I told it I'd boil it if anyone got killed._"

Skyler softly chuckled.

It was a little past halfway across the bridge, closer to the Manhattan side of the bridge, when they stopped where the supporting cables came back up above the walkway. Now while there were crossbeams over all of the lanes of traffic at this particular spot there were actually railings to aid a person in walking across them. While intended for maintenance personnel, they were what Skyler was going to use to plant an explosive at the outer cables.

Skyler went for the cameras first. He found four that were focused on where he needed to plant the explosives. One at a time he forced his way through their weak firewalls, and in short order he had them under his control. Uploading a copy of his old Negator program to each one of them, he used the augmented reality editor to remove all visual traces of himself and Mina.

"_I've got the cameras,_" he silently told Mina, _"now it's your turn._"

After a few seconds Mina replied, "_Now we're invisible, and the spirit's helping hide us._"

Carefully Skyler crept out to the first support cable. There was next to no cover to hide no matter how sneaky he tried to be, and as he blindly worked to plant the explosive he kept hoping that Mina's spirit would be the better in hiding him against whatever patrolling spirits there were.

It took several minutes to plant an explosive, even with the threaded demolitions skillsoft package running.

After the third charge was planted Mina had her spirit go off as far as it could to cause its accidents to stop traffic from coming onto the bridge. It was not long until they heard the screeching of skidding tires and the crunch of automobiles colliding with something. Skyler could already hear the calls for medical aid coming across the bridge's security network.

While Skyler was working on placing the fourth explosive he went to hacking into the roto-drones that were buzzing around the Brooklyn caisson. Finding that the roto-drones were running somewhat autonomous he combined the six of them together so he could more easily handle the networking load on his brain. It was also simpler to give them orders, like to start watching the bridge itself and have their video footage saved to the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm.

Just as he figured he had stashed the finale explosive the first explosive went off, rocking the bridge as the support cable snapped. He heard Mina cry out above the twangs of snapping steel cables.

"_You alright?_" Skyler asked urgently as he pushed himself back to his feet.

"What happened?" Mina asked aloud. It was then he realized that he could see her.

"I don't know." Skyler said. "Shit! Run!" he yelled, realizing that he had set the other three to go off in sequence after he had set the first one off.

Mina scrambled to her feet, paying no need to the narrow walkway as she ran for the edge of the bridge. Just as she reached him they both jumped off.

The second bomb went off just as the bridge disappeared from beneath them. The westbound side creaked loudly, the bridge shifting as the south side now supported the whole weight. The concussion wave hit them like a giant's hand to a housefly, sending them tumbling as they fell.

The East River was ice cold, the surface feeling like glass as Skyler plowed uncontrollably into it.

Getting back up to the surface turned out to be not all that hard, but his lungs were already burning for breath by the time Skyler got there. He did not even glance back at the bridge as he started swimming away from it. As he swam he could feel his connection to the cameras be severed as they fell into the river with the bridge.

"Ahoy there!" a man yelled.

A very bright light shined in his face, and Skyler was glad of the tight fit of his goggles about his head. Though they had shorted out with the water they were still about his head.

The man and light were on a ferry boat. Skyler waved frantically with his right arm for them.

"There's another in the water!" someone else yelled, the light moving.

"Hey!" Mina yelled from behind Skyler.

More concerned about Mina now than the ferry, Skyler turned and swam back to her.

When the ferry got close enough someone threw a life preserver towards them. Once he was sure Mina had a good hold of it, Skyler held on to it as well with one arm and waved to the ferry with the other. In short order they were pulled up and on board by a very burly troll.

"Are you two alright?" a man asked as the troll helped them over the ferry's railing. By his clothing it looked like he was one of the ferry's crew, along with the troll that had pulled them aboard. He also sounded like the first one that had called out to them.

"I think so." panted Skyler, his heart still pounding from the near death experience.

"I see others in the water!" another person yelled.

"Mike, go help pull them up." the man said. He then waved to another, an ork woman who also looked like one of the ferry's crew. "Amber, can you help take care of the kids? And get ready for more people we're gonna pull outta the water. Don't know how many got hurt."

"Yes sir." the ork woman, Amber, said.

Skyler felt much calmer than Amber did as she led them inside. There she got help from two others to get as many blankets and medkits out as they had, and to start getting what they could in hot drinks.

Checking on the recordings and finding they were good, Skyler sent the roto-drones out over the river and then issued a shutdown order. Hopefully crashing them into the East River would be good enough for their Renraku person.

After a while Skyler realized that he no longer had his Ruger Super Warhawk. Figuring it was now somewhere on the bottom of the East River and lost for good, he would just not worry about it.

For well over an hour Skyler and Mina sat huddled together under a shared blanket, with steaming cups of a chocolate flavored drink in their hands. They said nothing as more people were brought on board and their injuries tended to as best as the ferry crew could do. Once it was figured that all of the people they could find were rescued the ferry went to shore.

Medical emergency crews, Knight Errant and NYPD Inc. officers, as well as witnesses and gawkers were all along the riverside as the ferry pulled into one of the piers on the Brooklyn side of the river.

Parks on both sides of the now collapsed bridge were now staging areas for medical response teams, which included ambulance crews from local hospitals and a few DocWagon CRT helicopters.

After telling the EMTs they were fine several times, and enduring a cursory exam, they were cleared to leave. At least as soon as law enforcement officers had a chance to talk with them and their parent or guardian showed up to take them home.

Still sharing a blanket, they sat on a bench as they watched, safely out of the way of everyone else as they went about their business. They were beyond tired now, with Mina barely staying awake as she leaned on Skyler.

"Quite the night, isn't it." a familiar voice said.

Skyler did not even have to look up to know who it was.

"Yeah." Skyler said, taking a sip of his fifth hot chocolate of the night. "Got a chip?" he asked.

The NYPD Inc. agent walked around them, closely but discretely. Skyler caught the dropped data chip as he passed by.

"Quite amazing, too." the man said as Skyler slipped the chip up his left sleeve, and to the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm.

"How so?" Mina asked softly.

"So much destruction, and so far not one single fatality reported at all. I think some will say it's a miracle."

The data uploaded to the chip, Skyler pulled his hand free. To cover his movements he took another sip of hot chocolate.

"Yeah, lucky that." Mina said, shifting a little to try and stay comfortable.

"There you two are!" came Athena's voice.

"Ma'am?" the man asked. "I'm with NYPD Inc. Just what's your relation to these children?"

"They're mine." Athena said as she came rushing up to them. "Well, not mine as in they're my kids, but they're mine as in my responsibility. They're not in any trouble, are they?"

"Not at all. We were just having a little discussion on just how lucky everyone was tonight." the man said.

With a soft groan Mina stood up first, though Skyler had to help her keep standing.

"Can we go now?" Skyler asked.

"You two been checked out by EMS?"

"Yeah." Skyler said, sounding as tired now as he felt.

"Don't see why not." the man replied, offering a hand to shake.

Skyler and the man shook hands, and Skyler was quick to catch the exchange of one chip for another.

The man nodded once before he said, "Goodnight and drive safely." before walking off.

Quickly Skyler slipped the chip into a pocket.

"So, you two ready?" Athena asked.

"So ready." Mina replied.

Athena's sports car never felt so good. In anticipation she had set the car's heater to the maximum so it was incredibly warm for them. Warm enough that they fell asleep before they reached the brownstone.

It was late Sunday morning when they woke up in their own bed. They had been stripped down to their underwear, but otherwise were alone in their room. They got dressed before going downstairs to get breakfast, or lunch, really.

"Glad you two're finally up." Athena called to them from the living room as they headed into the kitchen.

"You didn't do anything weird while we were asleep, did you?" asked Skyler as Mina went to the SPU.

"What do you want?" Mina asked.

"Biscuit, eggs, and bacon."

"No, I didn't do anything weird." Athena said as she walked over to them. "Well, took your clothes off so you could sleep more comfortably, but that's all."

"No perverted sketching stuff?" Skyler asked.

"None, I swear."

"Anything about last night?" Mina asked, handing Skyler a plate of food.

"Lots of talk about the bridge. Everyone's got their opinions and theories about what happened." Athena told them. "And a lot are surprised that no one died either."

"Who got hurt the worst?" Mina asked as she pulled a plate for herself from the SPU. Together they walked over to the dining room table to eat.

"There's an ork woman that lost her arm when a cable snapped." Athena answered, "But it's a bit early to tell how she's gonna get fixed up."

Athena continued to tell them about the media coverage, which was lacking a lot in the way of real facts. There was no explanation for the destruction of the roto-drones (some reportedly were caught by the explosions), and no sensor feeds were recovered. Same was true for the security cameras, also for reasons unexplained.

Skyler and Mina spent most of the day in the living room, sitting next to the fireplace as it crackled with an open flame. With their okay, Athena did a sketch of the two of them as they sat together next to the fire.

Roadblock also spent some of the time relaxing there with them, watching an Urban Brawl league game between Seattle and Tir Tairngire.

Sunday night Skyler fired off an encrypted and compressed file containing the recording of the bridge he had gotten. It pretty much was all that he had to send since their NYPD Inc. contact had already gotten what had been asked for.

Monday afternoon came with a call from Mr. Johnson to settle the payment for their job. Again they were to meet at the Inara Indian Restaurant.

Nocturne was waiting for them when they arrived, taking the same metro lines that they did last Thursday.

It was almost as if the raid had not happened. Members of the Bastard Saints still hung out there, but seemed a bit more at ease than before. Anuj was just as obsequious as ever, and most everyone else just seemed to ignore Skyler and the others.

It was when Skyler stepped into the back room that he noticed there was something different. Regardless of how effective they might have been, Skyler almost drew his Morrissey Élan pistols when he saw someone other than Karl Gahley there waiting for them.

"Peace!" Peace Man said, greeting them with the 'V' hand gesture.

"What's going on?" asked Athena as she slipped in.

Peace Man waved them all in, waiting until they were seated before saying, "Mr. Johnson's been arrested. The heads on the trid weren't privy to the real investigation, and evidence was found to connect him to the bombing."

Behind his goggles, Skyler's eyes narrowed.

"Now you guys can keep chill." Peace Man continued, "Johnson doesn't blame you for this, and he's gonna take the heat. And that's why I'm here, so you guys can get paid." He dug into a pocket and pulled out five gold colored credsticks. "Managed to get these to me to give to you."

They all accepted a credstick, which Skyler let his holdouts slip back up his sleeves before accepting his. He promptly slotted the credstick to move the funds off of it and onto another credstick before pocketing the gold one. The full twenty-one thousand nuyen had been on that single credstick.

"Then that's it, I guess." Athena said, standing.

"Yup. Just stay low for a few days and this oughta blow over." Peace Man told them, again holding up a hand in the peace gesture.

Without a word they left the back room. They met up with Phoebe "Ms. Johnson" Sauvageon just as she was stepping through the front door.

"I'm glad I could bump into you." Phoebe said. She was wearing a royal blue business suit this time, cut from the Synergist Business Line. This time she had her commlink switched off.

"Awe shit." Skyler muttered softly.

"What do you want?" Athena asked darkly.

"To give you your bonus, and a warning." Phoebe said.

Skyler was almost twitching to draw his Predators, wishing he had his openly carried and more intimidating looking Warhawk at his hip, when Phoebe reached inside her jacket and pulled out five credsticks.

"You're paying us even though we didn't actually do your job?" Athena asked.

"_They didn't do it after all?_" Mina silently asked.

"You might not be as realistic as I had hoped, but you're still useable to us." Phoebe told them, "But I also said I had a warning."

Skyler slotted the new credstick, but this time was careful to scan it first before doing anything else. Turned out there was no duplicity or deception on the credstick. Only three thousand nuyen that he decided to send to the same other credstick he had.

"Figured your fat bonus was a big fat deal." Skyler said. "Next time you oughta consider upping the cred."

"Pay's not always in cash." Phoebe said, smiling like a viper ready to strike. "Just letting you know that the Neo-A's don't trust you."

"Really? That's no big surprise to me." Athena said.

"I'll be surprised if you really trust us." Nocturne added.

"I may not trust you, but I do trust what you will do." Phoebe said, "That's all that matters."

"Lemme give you a guy's number." Skyler said, "You can ask him about a Vory princess and what happened to her right ear last summer."

"That won't be necessary." Phoebe said.

"Oh, I think it will." Skyler said darkly.

"Unless you believe me when I tell you that even these kids won't suffer betrayal from anyone," Athena said, "you'll want to look her up."

Phoebe's demeanor was unflappable. "Do whatever you like, then." she said, turning to leave, "I've done what I've come to do."

"Yeah? Next time it'd better be a lot more than three grand!" Skyler called out to her as they followed her out of the restaurant.

"Or you can take the credstick and shove it up your ass!" Mina added.

Phoebe ignored them, getting into a waiting black sedan.

"C'mon, time to split." Nocturne said.

Skyler and Mina could not agree more.


End file.
